Parallel - Remember me
by SkewbForty
Summary: A group of good friends discover each other thanks to the help of inter-universal portals. Together, they try to help fight Team Plasma in a universe where they rose to power, but in the darkness something is helping shape the inevitable destruction of every Pokemon related universe. (First major writing project)
1. Chapter 1

_13 February 2012_

A young teen was sitting on a chair, he was being filmed.  
"Hello there. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?" Somebody had asked him.  
The kid inhaled and crossed his arms "My name is Thomas Jordan Steven. I have been an assistant of Super Rike since he was 9. Since his disappearance, my life has become much like that of a normal child, raised on education and increasing responsibility."  
"Can you describe Super Rike before he went missing?"  
"He was smart, like, out of this world smart. I knew he was an alien I just don't and perhaps now never will know which planet he originates from. He had superpowers which he says he got when he was 7. He could build portals that could defy anything and everything known to physics. You name it, he could make it happen."  
'What do you know about his disappearance?"  
"I know almost nothing. Earlier this year, one day, he just asked me to take me and my father Franklin to a place on Earth. He made sure we were financially stable and that we lived somewhere that we were somewhat used to before we met him. He seemed rather upset at the time."  
"And then what happened?"  
"Well, we couldn't return, it was one way transportation. Wherever we were, we were stuck there. We never heard from him again. Not long afterwards, there was controversy about his disappearance. We were only told what everyone was told. Super Rike was just gone, just like his brother Evil Rike did in 2010."  
"What do you think was the reason of his disappearance?"  
"To be honest, I couldn't tell you. I've been told so many things, I don't know what to believe anymore..."  
He looked to his side.  
"It might have to do with the fact that his family died in 2010 though."  
"Could you tell us more about that?"  
"Well, his parents were the first to die. It was early in the summer and we got news that his home planet has disappeared from every radar and scanner out there. He left and didn't come back until several months later concluding that it was gone, but he still didn't know how."  
"But his brothers Evil Rike, the then retired villain and ExploRike, the neutral kid who wanted to see the wonders of Earth, they weren't on that planet then, were they?"  
"They weren't, they died on an accident on Earth involving an experiment that they were conducting that went horribly wrong. They died not long before Super Rike returned to Earth."  
"And what happened after that?"  
"Hell, at least for him. You could clearly see that he was slowly losing his sanity. Me and my father actually started getting seriously worried."  
"Is it true that you started seeing less and less of him before he went away completely?"  
"Yes, it is. He had started seeing friends of his from another universe. I assume you're familiar with the Pokémon franchise?"  
"Is that the video game series?"  
"Yes. Well, he started seeing friends of his in a universe set with that theme. He even claims that he was responsible for Pokémon being made into a game in the first place, but I don't know if that was just him losing his sanity."  
"Do you have an idea on what happened to him?"  
"Well, some say that he's now dead. Others speculate that he now lives in his Pokémon world, and some say he left Earth."  
"And do any of those seem more likely to you?"  
"I doubt he'd just leave leave Earth like that. If he had, he probably would have come back by now."  
"So you think he's dead?"  
"I'm telling you, I don't know, I really have no clue."

"Okay, that's all we need to know for now, thank you for your time."  
"That's okay." He said, looking down "It's not like I had a choice to come here or anything."

_19 September 2011_

Touya was carelessly cycling around Unova. He didn't care where he was going. He felt alive.  
"Man" he thought to himself "Pokémon have really changed my life. It was all so boring before Pokémon came along."  
Thanks to his Pokémon, he found so many great people, spanning many alternate universes. He found a guy called Red, and apparently Ethan got into touch with a younger kid of the same name living in a different timeline. He said they were both quite different considering they were the same person. Strange how time works that way.  
He found a good friend in his own universe from the Johto region called Ethan. Ethan was a great guy, he doesn't spend so much time with Pokémon anymore, that's why he gave most of them to Touya, including a talking Typhlosion that he had named Ty.  
He met N, who he almost feels like he has a crush on Touya, which was extremely awkward, because he insisted that he was male, despite his long-ish hair.  
He thought about that for a second. He was glad nobody could read his thoughts because that last thought sounded kind of homophobic.  
But weirdest of all, he had found a female version of himself. Her name was Touko, and although he assured people that they were just friends, they were kind of shy around each other… In _that_ way.

Just then, his Xtransceiver went.  
"Oooh rats." he said, nearly falling over on his bike while racing to a halt.  
He quickly pulled the Xtransceiver out of his pocket. It was the 2011 model, the kind that could receive and send live video wherever he was. It was just Bianca. A good friend of his from before he discovered Pokémon. She was really quite sweet although a little bit dim.  
He clicked the accept button, and saw her face smiling at him.  
"Hey Touya! How is things?"  
"Oh I'm good thanks. What about you?"  
"Great. Hey, I was wondering if you have any free time right now?"  
"Hah. I always have free time."  
"Wanna meet at the Bridge on Route 5?"  
"Let me guess, you're looking for a Pokémon battle?"  
"Mmmmmmaybe." She said, smiling.  
"Allrighty. Route 5. Isn't that the busy route, with all those trainers?"  
"That's the one."  
"I'm on my way."  
"Thanks! See you there!"  
She hung up.

Heh. That Bianca. She could be sweet, but she sure knew when she wanted to battle.  
Touya got off his bike and entered a nearby Pokémon Center.  
"Hmm" He thought approaching the computer, "Which team shall I use?"  
He tapped on the controls swapping Pokéballs.  
"I know, I'll use Latios's team. I don't get to use him often, especially not with Bianca."

He raced out of the Pokémon center and flew to Driftveil.  
"Eh, I can just run the rest of the distance, it's not that far."  
He came running over to the bridge. He saw Bianca, along with Cheren, was that? She brought Cheren?  
Soon he realised that she didn't bring just Cheren. She was there with Touko, Teen Red, Ethan… And this new kid that he'd never seen before with a scar on the left side of his face.

"Hey guys!" He shouted over "What's going on over there!?"  
He kept running as they motioned him to come over.  
"Hey Bianca, what's the big deal? I thought we were just going to battle."  
"Yeah, but I decided to bring a few others with me as well!"

Touya just stood there for a second, before kind of laughing.  
What a Bianca thing to do. Ask for a battle and bring all her friends. It was that slightly random spontaneousness that made them such good friends.

"Hey Ethan! Long time no see!" Touya said.  
"Not in real life no, but since I got the Pokégear 2011 we've been seeing each other quite a lot I'd say." Ethan replied smugly.  
"But what brings you here, it's not like you to fly all the way over to Unova without telling me."  
"Well, you can say thanks to this guy right here." he motioned to the new kid.  
"Oh, err, hello there. Nice meeting you." he said shaking hands "Are you a friend of Ethan's or…?"  
"Yeah, I am." He said "We've been friends for quite some time but recently I've been hearing about you."  
"The name's Touya."  
"I'm Super Rike."  
"Wait, Super Rike? Is that actually your name?"  
"Nah, it's a tag name. My real name is Richard but I help fight crime like you do in another universe, hence the name."  
"So, you're a kind of superhero then?"  
"He's not just a superhero" Ethan said "He's a genius. He found a way to connect his universe with our universe all on his own."  
"Wait a second" Touya said "He found this universe on his own?"  
"Not only that" Super Rike continued "But I also helped connect parts of just this world. That's why Ethan is here now. I managed to get a portal working between Unova and Kanto!"

_No… Way. He has a direct link to Johto and Kanto now?!_

Touya couldn't say anything, after a second he turned to Ethan.  
"Is this really happening or am I just dreaming?"  
"It's amazing isn't it? I've been waiting to show you Johto for such a long time now!"  
"Yeah. I wanted to see it too. I wanna know about these marts you keep talking about."  
"You seriously don't have them?"  
"Nope."  
"That's bizarre. But, where do you get your all supplies?"  
"You mean like potions and stuff?"  
"Yeah."  
"You can just get those at the Pokémon center" Touya said, pointing to the Pokémon center in the distance.  
Ethan blinked for a few seconds. "...I think I just loved this region that little bit more."

Touko butted in.  
"Hey guys! Bianca's talking to Cheren and I'm kinda bored not talking with anybody. What's up?"  
"Oh hey Touko" Touya said, trying not to blush "We were just talking about this new guy here, his name is, err, Super Rike."  
"Hi." Super Rike waved "Are you related to Touya, because you two really look alike."  
Touya slightly giggled in an embarrassing way.  
"We're not just relatives…" Touko said "We're the same person!"  
Super Rike looked surprised "...Really? From different universes?"  
"Yep. They're pretty different universes though, to be fair. Touko's universe is in constant threat of a group called Team Plasma, while my one is just a normal, peaceful Pokémon region."  
"But why is Team Plasma more dangerous in Touko's world?" Super Rike asked.  
"We don't know" they both said.  
"Buuuuut…" Touko continued "We think it may have to do with the fact that Team Plasma was founded earlier in my world. You see, in this world Touya had enough time to raise his Pokémon and defeat Team Plasma, whilst in mine they were already way too powerful."  
"Hmm, so what happened?"  
"War..." she said simply "The worst thing that could happen. Team Plasma is currently waging a war against the rest of my Unova which we call "Black Unova" because mine has a city called Black city while this Unova has a forest called White forest, and long story short nobody is safe. I often have to get up really early in the morning to reduce the risk of being killed in a crushed building. That's why I'm so much more athletic than Touya is."  
Touya continued "We think it's the fact that this Black city of theirs exists that's the reason why Team Plasma is so much powerful over there. It's easier to set up an establishment there than it is in a forest."  
"I suppose you'd want our help fighting them then." Super Rike suggested.  
"Best not," Touko said "Like I said, they're extremely powerful and they're not afraid to get their hands dirty. I have a Bianca and Cheren over there as well, and I don't even know where Bianca is, or even if she's alive. That's why I'm here so much, I just want to live a peaceful life like Touya."  
"Besides" Touya finished "If they get a hold of our portal technology, we're all done for."  
"Good point." Super Rike said.

"Introductions aside, Bianca, what do want us to do now?" Touya asked Bianca.  
"Well I dunno, anything. Cheren said he's gonna show Teen Red our Victory road because he seems interested. I've gotta fly home soon so I'll be in time for dinner, that just leaves you 4."  
"Hmm" Touya said, thinking out loud "well, I was thinking of showing Ethan around Unova and hopefully he can show me Johto today or tomorrow. Super Rike will need to come with us so he can show us how he sets up the portals. That just leaves you Touko."  
"I'll just be hanging around the stadiums I think, training my Pokémon, you know?" She replied.  
"Well we all have something to do then. Excellent. See you later, guys." Touya said, moving along with Super Rike and Ethan.  
"Oh," he mentioned before they left "If you want us to join together again, just say so, okay? We can chat and stuff."  
"Okay then." Bianca said happily "Bye!"

After a minute Touya realized "Hey wait, we never did that battle!"

_1 October 2004_

It all started at around noon. It was a peacefully quiet day in Pallet Town, nobody I knew was around, except somebody I met who lived in a not well known spot along the coast of Kanto somewhere between Vermillion and Celadon.

It was a rather long 2004. Pallet Town being such a small town, not much happened there. One interesting thing did happen, though.  
Apparently, a law was going to be passed that only people who were 16 or older were allowed to use and raise pokémon by fighting with them.  
This was almost immediately declined. Not only was it safe enough for virtually anybody at any age to do, but virtually anybody at any age was already doing it. The majority of bug catchers were kids. Plenty of very young children pair up with their parents and fight. Hell, they even had their own category: Jr trainers.  
It would have been a very bad move to have approved that law, but it did get Red thinking. "I always looked at trainers with a slight look of awe and envy in my eyes. That day it dawned on me... I wanted to be a trainer."  
Practically everybody in Pallet Town thought it was a good idea. It gave me more experience in life, and allowed me to get out more. Like... Don't I already do that enough?  
The idea was in fact so good, that my rival Blue stole it from me. It seems there was going to be 2 trainers from Pallet. Thanks to Blue, as much as he hates that fact, I was able to get in touch with his grandpa, Professor Oak, who sped up the process of making me a Pokémon trainer by a lot.  
Finally, the day arrived when I got my first Pokémon. I remember the date well, because it was the day after I watched this movie with my mother.  
I got a Squirtle. And almost immediately I had to battle with it. And with who else, then my rival, Blue.  
He had chosen a Bulbasaur. This worried me because I remembered reading somewhere that it was hard to win a fight against a grass type with a water type. Despite this, we won (And on our first fight, too!) and we continued onwards to become the ultimate team, Red and Squirtle.  
Nearly a year has been since then.  
A lot has changed. My Squirtle is now a Blastoise, I now have a team of 6 pokémon, I have defeated all the gym leaders and the Elite 4 (3 guesses who the champion was...) and become the Champion of the Kanto region. Also, the Kanto region, at least during the time that I was Champion, was ranked #1 as the strongest region in the entire world. Basically, that means that I was the strongest trainer in the world.  
I don't know where I would be if it wasn't for my pokémon. I have made it so far in life, that there was pretty much nothing else to do in life. But I knew there was. I knew that there was a trainer, somewhere out there, maybe in this region, or maybe on the other side of the world, I knew that there was a trainer, that actually posed as a challenge to me, maybe even a trainer that could beat me...

Could there?

_5 Years later…_

"...And these should come in handy, too."  
Ethan, who just received his updated buttons on his Pokégear, heads out to talk to Professor Elm.  
Things in New Bark Town were going the same as they usually were. Occasionally somebody would cross the town to get to work. But the town usually only had it's own population in it at any given time.  
As Ethan felt the slight breeze that flowed from though the trees and into the town, and out of the town just like that, he walked towards Elm's lab, passing Lyra once as he went there.  
Ethan and Lyra were good friends. Before Ethan got his pokémon, he always played with Lyra's pokémon, Marill. That was to change very soon, though. He found himself leaving the town into the pokémon inhabited world for the first time so he could retrieve a pokémon... "egg", and deliver it back to Professor Elm.  
His adventure wasn't over yet then, though. Soon he found himself challenging Gym leaders with the pokémon he chose all those days ago to help deliver the egg, Cyndaquil, who later evolved into a Quilava, and finally a Typhlosion. Not 6 months had passed, he already found himself in Johto's twin region, Kanto, challenging the Elite 4. In 1 go, he successfully defeated the Elite 4 and their champion, Lance. Ethan felt practically on top of the world. So why stop there? Why not challenge the 8 Gym leaders in Kanto, too? He found them to be quite a bit more difficult than the ones in Johto, especially that Blue guy, but still no match. Over a year since he first got his Cyndaquil, he had mastered both regions. But 1 challenge remained. The legend. Everywhere he went, he kept hearing the same thing. He heard about a boy. This boy was apparently the strongest in the world. He single handedly fought to the champion of all, and with no effort, completely destroyed an entire major pokémon criminal gang. This was obviously not the case, though, as they very clearly were still around when Ethan was traveling the Johto region.  
This made Ethan think... "Maybe this "Red" didn't manage to disband team Rocket, at least, not until I started travelling, but I certainly managed it, at least for a while. Could it be, am I just as strong as Red?"

Ethan knew that 6 years back, when Red became Champion and had caught some legendary pokémon, is he went into a non stop training routine at the top of a place called Mount Silver. Back then, mount silver was only recently discovered, and back then, was officially declared the nastiest place on the planet. The reason is the pokémon there were the strongest wild pokémon anybody had ever discovered, it broke the world record from the previous place, Cerulean Cave, which happened to be pretty close to Mount Silver.

What Ethan didn't know, is that Red was transformed.  
While he was rather upbeat and determined when he started nearly 7 years ago, now he hardly said anything. He hardly even moved. He was sure that if he didn't need to eat, he simply wouldn't move.  
It wasn't the best weather to be out. Actually, it never was. The snow was always so harsh that you could barely see anything. Very sometimes, you'd get clear, pleasant snow, but that was only like a few times a year.  
His pokémon had transformed. They had turned into beasts. Nothing could stand in their way, absolutely nothing. Not after 6 years of harsh training. Red's team forgot how to socialize, and practically avoided it, too. He was strong. Too strong. If anyone were to even dare to challenge him, he would in an almost instant, completely obliterate their entire team and leave them with absolutely nothing but a look on his face, saying "Get off my mountain."  
Ethan found Red. He challenged him. He won.  
It was by far, the most difficult pokémon fight he ever had. He, for the first time, really had to strategize, and he won by a split hair, but he won.  
Many things went through Red at this point, he couldn't believe it. Someone had beat him. Someone had actually legitimately beat him. He didn't cheat, he didn't use powerups, he simply defeated each and every of his team.  
But something, somewhere in Red, said "Finally."  
He admitted defeat without a single word, and just before Ethan left, Red threw him a look.  
It said "Good fight."

2 months had passed. Red had left Mount silver, to communicate with others again. Slowly, but surely he was becoming a part of Kanto again, he started talking more, he paid his respects to Cinnabar island, he got himself a pokégear 2010, he started to come across Ethan more, they traded numbers, they battled more (And quite admittedly, they were very evenly matched).  
Life, for the both of them, was taking a turn for the better.  
But this is only the begin for this hugely complicated story.

"_Ring Ring..._"  
Ethan was in Fuchsia City. No particular reason, but he was there.  
"_Ring Ring..._"  
Ethan was just mindlessly chatting with someone. He could swear he could hear strange noises, but whatever, that wasn't his highest priority at the moment.  
"_Ring Ring..._"  
Okay, now it was.  
"Hang on, hang on." Ethan said, "I can hear something. Are you playing music?"  
"No" replied the person he was talking with.  
Ethan held one of his earbuds close to ear to check if it was his music he was hearing.  
Then he figured "No, It's too repetitive to be music."  
He then looked around. Soon he found himself rushing through the city to find the source of the noise.  
He eventually found it. It was the Fuchsia public telephone.  
"Oh dear," he thought, "someone ought to answer that."  
No, something's wrong. There's something very wrong with this picture. What was it?  
Oh yeah, it's-

O_o

Why on earth would somebody want to call a public telephone... And how?!  
This creeped Ethan out. Should he go answer it?  
Slowly and hesitantly, he made his way towards the phone.  
He was in the booth, just waiting for something to happen.  
Then he figured, the phone could stop ringing anytime. He already spent time looking for it. It was now or never.  
Quickly, he picked up the phone. He managed to catch the phone call just an instant before it was going to go out.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey there."  
Ethan just stared in an empty way. This was all way too odd. Was he dreaming or something?  
Ethan replied "This is the Fuchsia public telephone."  
"I know."  
Hang on... Ethan knew that voice. It was... eeeerrrrmmmm... It was Red!  
"Red! What are you doing calling a public telephone?"  
"Haha, that's a long story."  
There was something wrong with his voice. It was very high. Not in the way that he inhaled helium though, no, more like he was a kid.  
"But first, can you tell me your name?"  
"Umm, it's Ethan. Don't you recognize my voice?"  
"I don't know you. But I'm sure future me does."  
Ethan was starting to freak out. What on earth kind of bizarre behavior was this? Out of all people Ethan knew, Red was the last person he would have expected to act like this.  
"I expect you're a little confused."  
"Just a little."  
"Well, I won't be able to tell the whole story, that would involve me having to explain multi-dimensional travel, possible outcomes, tree branch theories, and other complicated stuff like that. Long story short, I'm speaking from a parallel universe."  
A parallel universe... Is it real? Was Ethan going mad? Was Red just pulling a joke on him?  
"You know Red, correct?"  
"Yes."  
"How old is he?"  
"16. 17 this month."  
"That means I am calling from about 5 and a half years in the past."  
"What?"  
"Yeah. June 2005."

"Is this a joke?"  
"No. I swear it isn't. I know it's hard to believe, but please, stick with me."  
"If this isn't a joke, then how can you be calling a public telephone."  
"Public telephones have numbers, too, you know. Really. Look it up."  
"Ok, but why?"  
"I can't tell you that right now. But I do plan to in the future. As long as you trust me at this point."  
"Hmmmm..."  
"Please?"  
"Okay. You have 5 minutes."  
"Good. Now, I'll need you to do something."  
"Which is...?"  
"Go to the nearest Pokémon center, and ask to use the Pokémon connect desk. The person behind the desk will ask if you want to use coordinates. Say yes."  
"...And then?"  
"Do you have a pen and paper?"  
Ethan looked. He had paper, he didn't have a pen. He had a pencil, though.  
Whatever, it doesn't matter.  
"Yes."  
"Write these coordinates down."

He gave quite a long string of coordinates. For a moment, Ethan was afraid he wouldn't be able to write them all down. But he did, so he was on his way.  
The connect desk was usually just something people could use to connect to other trainers from faraway parts of the globe. On rare occasions, though they found themselves connecting with trainers from different timelines, or from different universes. Little was understood about it in their universe, but that's okay, because they frequently found themselves connecting with universes that did understand.

The theory is that there are billions of different universes that look almost exactly the same, and even more that look totally different. There are ones where Ethan chose one of the other starters, same goes for Red, in some of them they end up with all 3. In some universes, Ethan never beats Red. And vice versa. Then there are really odd universes where trainers get their hands on Arceus's, despite them just being legend. Stranger still, some universes contain huge varieties of a subspecies of Pokémon called Missingno. And then there are universes in which there are no Pokémon at all, and Red is a nameless alien with two hearts that travels everywhere in his universe in a tiny blue box.

Things start to get complicated, however, if people start travelling between them.  
If people, things or, well, anything travel between universes, that must mean that there's a way to get something from one universe to another. If one can travel to another universe due to the events of what's happened in their universe, it should happen again an infinite amount of times at the exact same instant.

Here's an example: Say for whatever reason, Person A needs to get from his universe, universe A, to universe B. Now, whatever reason that is, quantum theory suggests that there will be another infinite amount of universes, an infinite amount of alternatives to universe A, with people in them that need to get to universe B for the exact same reason. If Person A successfully travelled to universe B, then there's nothing holding every other universe from being able to travel there too, and universe B will extremely quickly fill itself up with another infinite versions of Person A.

To counter this, there's the perfect mirror theory. It suggests that even though there's an infinite amount of universes that need to get to universe B, every single universe is different in an extremely tiny way. Because of this, they don't make their way to universe B, but instead they find themselves in a version of universe B that has the same tiny little difference that the alternative to universe A had.

Unfortunately, because quantum theory requires there to be every possible combination in a beyond infinite amount of universes, there is. And if communication with other universes is possible, that means transferring is possible too. There must therefore be a universe that can produce an infinite amount of something, anything, in no time at all. This universe could then transfer all that infinite matter towards another universe. There must also be a universe that dumps it's infinite matter in every other universe.

This means that every universe is now crammed with this matter, preventing anything else from happening anywhere.

There must therefore be universes that can continue without being affected by all this quantum universe waste. There must also be one that doesn't even notice that it's there. Between these universes that aren't affected, must be a universe that can erase all the matter from every other universe and restore everything in each universe as if the matter was never there in the first place.

With each universe once again restored, things go back to normal. Or so it seems. But somewhere on the infinite table of quantum physics, lies a universe with the power to destroy the universe that restored everything. Not only that, but also prevent it from doing whatever it did to restore all the other universes.

So we're crammed with matter again.

Because of quantum physics, there will always be a universe that can defeat another universe and therefore either prevent or cause something to happen in other universes, creating a sort of paradox.

Thus introduces the "Me first!" Theory.

Even though every possible universe is present, there can only be 1 universe that acts first. Because time works differently in the 10th dimension to how it does on Earth, it becomes especially difficult to determine.

However, as we're very clearly here, and not crammed with matter, it seemed that the universe that returns everything to normal seems to have gone first (Or last, depending on how you look at it).

Because of quantum physics, though, every combination has to happen.

And on that note, welcome to the 11th and 12th dimensions.

The 11th and 12th dimensions, when looked at from a point of view that humans can understand, looks a bit like a tree. It has branches. Each branch is a possibility. On one branch, there's a case where the universe that restores everything has the last word, (Or first) which seems to be the branch we're on.  
There are also branches where the universe that crams every other universe with matter got the last word.  
There are branches where universes that crammed half of all the universes and left the other half alone. There are also branches where universes that turned every living thing from every other universe into zebras got the last word.  
Nobody knows if 11th or maybe even 12th dimensional travel is possible. Hopefully though, there isn't, otherwise I'd have a lot more explaining to do.

Ethan typed the coordinates into the computer.

It took about a minute, but slowly, a white light came into focus. It expanded to about the size of a door. The light started straightening out, transforming into the shape of a rectangle, figures came into focus in the light. Eventually it looked just like a doorway... And on the other side was Red.  
He was smaller. This wasn't a joke, this Red really came from a different time. Ethan walked over to this door.  
Before he reached it, Red said "You can't come through to this world."  
"What?"  
"And neither can I."  
Ethan blinked. "And why not?"  
"Because I'm making this link with our technology, and you can't directly send a human life across universes with our technology."  
"Theeeeeen, what was the point of this?"  
Red told his story.

Back in 2004 (On Kid Red's universe) he had became the champion. He then went to search for a more challenging trainer. Unfortunately, the closest region to him was the Sinnoh region, which was pretty far away, so while he waited for the S.S. Anne to arrive again to take him there, he went and searched for so called legendary pokémon. He also went to visit a nearby city called Johto city. Everything in Johto City went fairly well, except he quite often found himself getting confused with the name, as literally days before he visited Johto city, it was renamed to Goldenrod City.  
He also visited the Sevii islands. He became interested in the ruins and their mysteries, but never managed to solve them. This led to his interest in the Ruins of Alph which he visited once during his journey to Goldenrod City. He never figured the mystery to those ruins, either.  
Before the S.S. Anne arrived, a massive scientific breakthrough occurred involving the study of parallel universes. The study was carried out by Professor Oak and his friend Elm, who shortly afterwards became a professor himself. Within a few weeks, the whole world knew about this, and within a few months, every Pokémon Center in Kanto went under major reconstruction. They went on to build quantum link points in every center, which could connect to any point in quantum physics. They also updated the model and changed the stair structure.

By this point in Kid Red's timeline, Red figured that it wasn't about being the strongest, it was about travelling and learning. He decided to give his pokémon to somebody else so they could begin a journey of their own. At first he didn't like that idea, because he didn't want to have to say goodbye to his Blastoise. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him. He knew that some point in the future, he would have to say goodbye to his team. All living things age. And there's always a point when one has to say farewell to another. The longer he was with his team, the worse somebody would have it when somebody goes. At least if he replaces his team, his old team would have a new world to explore.

To ensure his Blastoise remembered him, Red gave him his Master Ball which he had never used himself. He only really wanted to give Blastoise something of value, rather than just some mail or something.

Then came the hard part, the letting go.

Kid Red and Ethan were ready to do the exchange, one week after Ked Red first called Ethan.  
Ethan looked at Kid Red, "Are you sure you want to do this?"  
"I'm going to have to. Bitter farewells always happen. And it's better sooner than later."  
"Yeah."  
Kid Red deeply breathed in.  
And put all his pokémon into the Link table.  
Blastoise didn't even know this had happened until he first exited his pokéball again.

In the next few days, Ethan tried to contact Kid Red to ask him how he was, but never got through to him. He tried calling the coordinates into his pokégear. No success. What was the point, he thought, in contacting him from a universe that couldn't connect to other universes on it's own. If he really wanted to contact him, he would have to do it with a Pokémon Center.

But before he did all this, he first called Teen Red, and arranged for him to meet by the fountain at Celadon City. He wanted to see if this was all legit.  
"Thanks for coming, Red."  
"No problem, I guess", replied Teen Red.  
"Now this is gonna sound kinda strange, but can I see your Blastoise?"  
Teen Red thought about this.  
"I don't want to fight, I just want to see your Blastoise."

Without another word, Teen Red let Blastoise out of his pokéball.  
"Okay," said Ethan "This will look really wierd, but..."  
Ethan let Kid Blastoise out of his pokéball.  
Ethan and Teen Red got a few glances by passersby, but nobody actually double took them.  
Teen Red, however, just stood there, absolutely speechless (shut up) at what he saw.  
His Blastoise, Ethan just let his Blastoise of his pokéball. There were 2 Blastoises standing there, they were absolutely identical.  
Teen Red's Blastoise was confused.  
Kid Red's Blastoise even more so.  
Slowly, and very hesitantly, Kid Blastoise made his way to Teen Red, and turned to face Ethan, still with a really confused look on his face.  
After a few minutes, Red found his voice.  
"What... is this?!"  
Ethan told him the whole story.  
"So let me get this straight," Red began "There's a parallel universe where I say goodbye to my Blastoise?"  
"Yep."  
"...And he just so happened to give it to you?"  
"By chance, yes."  
"So these Blastoises, they're the same Blastoise?"  
"Mm-hmm."

Teen Red paused to think.

"Can we still contact the other Red?"  
"I don't know. But I'll try."  
"Right."  
Ethan told Teen Red that he needed to tell Teen Red about this, and left with a rather annoyed looking Blastoise.  
About a week later...  
Slowly, a white light came into focus, the light expanded and Kid Red's universe slowly came into view again.  
Ethan was at the Pokémon Center, and had just put in the coordinates once again.  
On the other side wasn't Kid Red, but a lady who looked like she worked for the Pokémon Center.  
This is the Pokémon Center Quantum link desk. How can we be of service?  
"Yes, hello." Ethan said. "I'm looking for Red, from Pallet town."  
"Okay. Do you know his surname?"  
Ethan thought. Neither Kid Red or Teen Red ever told him their surname.  
"No, I don't."  
"So you're looking for Red, from Pallet Town, Kanto. Correct?"  
"Yes."

She walked away. A few minutes later, she was back.  
"I'm sorry. Red isn't available."  
"Whaaa?"  
"Red left Kanto to go to Sinnoh a week ago."  
"Oh, erm, okay. I thought he didn't have any Pokémon."  
"He has one pokémon. A Squirtle."  
"Oh right."  
"He said, he didn't know when he was going to return to Kanto."  
Ethan raised his eyebrows, and nodded.  
"Sorry for the inconvenience."  
"No, that's fine. Fine."  
"If that's all, shall I now close communications?"  
"Yeah. Sure. Thanks."  
The lady left again, and the gateway shrank and disappeared.  
Kid Red was gone. His Pokémon were surely Ethan's now.

Then it happened: New year's day 2011. The year where everything changed... Again.

Nobody really ever listened to the people at the Celadon Condominiums. Everybody assumed the people that lived there were insane. Nobody ever stopped to think that maybe they were telling the truth, that they really were God. Like, the actual God, a higher tier than Arceus itself.  
Anyway, they announced that a new game, Pokémon Black and White were going to be released soon. Nobody took this seriously, of course, partly because they never did, but mostly because they had no idea what on Earth a "Pokémon Black and White game" was.  
They had tried before, to convince people that they were living in a game called "Pokémon Soulsilver", but most people just started making jokes about that.

In January, not much happened, except the sighting of a pokémon called Latios, which were appearing at random points of Kanto ever since September 2010 had stopped all of a sudden. Ethan knew better. Latios was a legendary pokémon which he was trying to catch since some guy called Stephen told him about it. He used False swipe until he was convinced Latios's health could go no lower, tried to lullaby it to sleep every time he saw it and if it worked (Which it rarely would), he would chuck as many love balls as he had at him. He knew that Love balls, when the target pokémon was male (Latios being a male only Pokémon) and the other pokémon in the fight was female, that love balls worked 4 times better than ultra balls.  
What he didn't know is that they were only that powerful if he had a female Latios fighting the wild one.

He had worked non stop for 3 months to catch this pokémon. And he finally caught it. He was feeling pretty proud of himself.  
February was even worse. Virtually nothing happened. All that Ethan really did was challenge the Gym leaders to rematches. He challenged Red once, too.  
At the beginning of March, though, the crazy people at the Celadon Condominiums were making a big deal out of nothing. They said something along the lines of "Black and White has been released in Europe." And people quickly put them back in the Celadon Condominiums without actually listening.  
Strangely enough, only a few days later, on the other side of the world, or at least, almost... A group of crazy people got themselves thrown in a building for saying exactly the same thing.

"Hey, Oak."  
Ethan was in Oak's lab.  
"What is it, Ethan?"  
"Have you ever considered studying about parallel universes?"  
"Hmm," Oak replied "No, I don't think I have."  
"Oh, ok."  
Not like Kid Red's Professor Oak at all then.  
"No, I believe you've got the wrong guy. I'm a pokémon professor, see."  
"Ah."  
Oak continued doing what he was doing. He looked over at Ethan who was staring at him somewhat expectantly.  
"I think there may be Professors who specialize in parallel universes in the Kionna region."  
"Never heard of it."  
"Well, look it up." He said, turning to continue his work.  
Oak turned back and looked at him again.  
"Why do you ask?"  
"Oh, just wondering, I mean I've heard of parallel universes before, but..."  
Ethan didn't bother to finish his sentence.  
"Okay..." Professor Oak said eventually.  
Oak looked at him again shortly, before continuing what he was doing. Ethan, assuming that there wasn't really any point in being there anymore, left the lab.

_28 February 2011_

"No, I don't think I ever will."  
Summer had came and went in Nuvema town without showing any signs of warm weather. What was worse, was that they had predicted extremely bitterly cold weather throughout April.  
Touya, who was feeling kinda down about this news, went outside and took a stroll. Along the way, he happened to bump into his friend Bianca. They walked together and discussed the only thing they talked about those days, which was Pokémon.  
"Well, you never know," Bianca told Touya "Maybe one day you'll wake up and, you'll find yourself a pokémon."  
"I doubt that it will happen now, if it didn't happen to me the first 16 years of my life."  
"W-"  
"I mean, I know it sounds crazy," Touya continued, "but I honestly think my parents are trying to isolate me from the world of Pokémon."  
Bianca thought about this. So were her parents though.  
"Well, miracles do happen." She said.  
"I just want to walk through Route 1. Just once. That's all. Is that so much to ask for?"  
"But Touya, you know you can't travel through routes with no pokémon."  
"I know, I know."  
Touya sighed.  
"There's something else on your mind, though, isn't it?"  
Touya breathed in again.  
"Yes."  
"What is it?"  
"Well, to be honest," Touya began, "I miss my father. Ever since my parents got divorced I've hardly seen him."  
"Well, I can't tell you I know how you feel, I mean obviously I still live with both my parents."  
Touya pulled a sort of annoyed face.  
"But you can always talk to Professor Juniper if you're having problems, can't you?"  
"Yeah." Touya said in a sort of "You're Missing The Point" tone.  
They continued walking.  
"Where do you need to go, anyway?" Touya asked Bianca.  
"Accumula Town. I need to deliver something."  
"Okay."  
"What about you?" Bianca asked.  
"Me? I'm not really going anywhere."  
"I see."  
"Is it okay if I come along?"  
"I, err, don't see why not."

In about the time it takes to walk through route U1 and back a few times, they arrived in Accumula. Touya didn't walk in populated areas much, so he didn't visit this town often. Touya therefore didn't know this place very well. In fact, he only really knew about the Pokémon center, and that was it.  
At least, until he found something else to remember the town by.

"Now" Bianca began "I need to find the family Park. I th-"  
Touya suddenly laughed out loud.  
A few seconds awkward silence.  
"Ahem..." Touya said sheepishly "Sorry."  
"What's so funny about the name Park?"  
"No, not that." Touya pointed to a building on a low part of the ground. "That."  
"So? We've seen that building before." Bianca pointed out.  
"Yeah, but I didn't notice anything about it until now."  
"...And what's that?"  
"It's up against 3 walls."  
Indeed, the way it was placed, 3 of its sides were closed off by large walls of concrete.  
"That has to be the crappiest place you could live. With windows on only 1 side." Touya thought out loud.  
Another moment's silence.  
"Yeah." Bianca said slowly "I guess so."  
They were both getting slightly annoyed at all the awkward silences.  
Touya broke the silence this time. "Anyway..."  
They swiftly moved on.

As the people of the Unova region (Which, by the way, is the name of the region Touya and Bianca live in) prepares for the cold Winter up ahead, Autumn fills the atmosphere. Leaves turn their traditional brown and the cold winds begin to blow. One thing was certain... It was definatly March weather.  
Professor Juniper had given Touya small tasks to do since it became 2011. Most of these were extremely simple, but the more recent ones involved using Pokémon. That was, until Juniper mysteriously disappeared during late February. Nobody knew where she went. It was rumoured she went to get something for Touya, Bianca and their other friend, Cheren.  
Touya had a few thoughts about this. First, he thought that something could have happened to Juniper. He quickly dismissed this, as his parents didn't look really concerned. He then came up with the thought that maybe she is getting him a Pokémon. He thought that was ridiculous though, and tried to dismiss that thought. That is, he tried. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get that nagging idea out of his head.  
He decided, seeing as Juniper was gone, that gave him more time to try out his new computer. (Although he said it was new, he had it for more than half a year now)  
One of the first things he did on this computer was he made friends with a kid called Ethan. He met him once at this website, telling him Touya was so envious that Ethan had Pokémon and Touya didn't. Especially seeing as Touya was 16 and Ethan was like, 11.

And then came the day his life changed.  
"Ha! Check this out!" Touya said, slightly louder than he had originally planned, but he didn't care.  
"What is it?" Bianca asked. Next to her was Cherren. The 3 of them were in Touyas room.  
"They're researching this parallel universe that apparently exists in quantum thingy, or something complicated, like that."  
"Right."  
"Well... It has no Pokémon in it!"  
"No way!"  
"They have animal-like creatures, but not a single Pokémon!"  
"That's weird. What would a world be like with absolutely no Pokémon, I wonder..."  
"There's more" Touya continued.  
He looked at his screen, and then back at his friends.  
"Oh yeah. Seasons take 3 months in this universe."  
"3 Months?!"  
"Yep."  
"But... How does that...?"  
"There are 4 seasons in the year, instead of 1 every month. And they last 3 months, instead of 1."  
"I can't even begin to imagine how horrifically unbearable it would be to have to live through 3 months of winter."  
"It's crazy, isn't it?" Touya asked them.  
"Yeah" They agreed, with their minds elsewhere.  
"Anyway" Touya said, trying to fix his own mind elsewhere, "Why did you guys come?"  
"We have news." They both said.  
"And that is...?"  
"Professor Juniper is back!"  
"Great!"  
"And she brought something for us!"  
Touya looked at them, puzzled.  
"What's that?"

The rest is history.


	2. Chapter 2

_12 June 2011_

_BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!  
_Touko hit the off button.  
"You know…" Touko thought "I'm almost glad I live in such a chaotic world. I know many people complain that they can't stop hitting the snooze button…"  
She sat up, rubbing her eyes.  
"Maybe it's the fact that I could die at any second… It really increases your awareness, things like getting up in the morning just kind of stop becoming a problem."  
She breathed in deeply. She hoped she could find food today.  
Just then she heard a high tone. Oh crap…  
She flew out of bed and somersaulted to the other side of the room as quickly as she could. That very second, the side of her room that her bed was in was completely crushed. It was gone.  
Ever since Team Plasma had rose to power, they saw Touko as a threat, and were now seeking to eliminate her. She had to constantly move location until she had enough money to escape Black Unova entirely.  
That's not what she was worried about though. She could fight off Plasma's threats. She was worried that Plasma may get smart, and start to use her family and friends to get her to surrender.

She looked outside through the massive gap in the building that this Pokémon had left. Oh good god. It was Groudon again. How did they even get that Pokémon?  
She quickly dialed her Xtransceiver and sent a group call to Black Cheren and Black Bianca.  
They both answered. Thank god.  
"You guys okay?" She asked  
They got good reactions from them both.  
"So, what now?" Black Cheren asked.  
"We can't fight Groudon. He's way too powerful. We have to flee. Now."  
"Gotcha."  
"Bianca, Cheren, I'll see you at the central park in Castelia. Over and out." She hung up.  
"Go Unfezant!" She brought out Unfezant. "You think you're up to flying us to Castelia?"  
Unfezant nodded.  
"Great. Once we're there I can get you healed up at the Pokémon center."  
She boarded Unfezant "Use fly!"  
Unfezant took a running start on what was left of her room and flew out of the cavity in the hotel. Another flying Pokémon could be seen on the other side of the hotel doing the same thing. It was Bianca. Eventually, Cheren was seen doing the same thing, only he did so later because his room was still intact.

"Now remember guys!" She shouted over the rushing wind "Groudon has been ordered to attack us, so try and evade his attacks!"  
"Gotcha!" They shouted.  
There it was, the Godzilla of Unova. Groudon was looking for something, obviously for Touko. It was then, he noticed the flying Pokémon coming out of the hotel.  
"Please let us escape this one safely." She muttered under her breath, as well as the increasing blast of wind she was fighting against.  
Groudon let out a roar. Touko was pretty sure that decibel level was not good for her ears. Then he attempted smashing them with his paw, like a human trying to catch a fly with their hands.  
"Unfezant! You know what to do!" Touko ordered.  
Unfezant started flying in unpredictable patterns. Groudon started growling.  
"Come oooon, come ooooon." She muttered.  
They were almost there. They were nearly out of Groudon's reach. Groudon was there, trying to navigate the maze that was the town below him, but to not much success. Getting frustrated, he cheated and stepped on a house, crushing it flat, allowing it one more chance to swat Touko out of the air. He raised his massive paw.  
Touko shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, clutching Unfezant tightly.  
Then came the glorious sound of air whooshing past them. It had missed. They were safe. Well, _she_ was safe.  
Touko, being a little out of breath breathed a sigh of relief. She had done it. Now came the awful wait to see if her friends had done the same.

Then came the familiar tune of the Castelia background music. They were nearly there. Flying Pokémon could be seen leaving the city, presumably news reporters seeing what all the fuss was about back at the hotel.  
She never watched the news. Too depressing.  
They got off in front of the Pokémon center. She rushed in to heal her Pokémon.  
"You know, maybe you should change that motto." Touko told the Pokémon nurse. "Hoping to see me again? That kinda sounds like you wanna see my Pokémon injured."  
"You'd be surprised how often I hear that." The nurse said.  
"So why don't you change it?" Touko asked  
The nurse shrugged "I don't know. Tradition I suppose."  
Ah Unova and their traditions. Why couldn't more places be like Black Opelucid?  
Touko left and headed on to the central park. There was a lot of discussion going on, but also a lot of people just trying to get to work.  
This made Touko think. "Even though this region is waging war, not that much is different. People still go to work, they meet friends, have fun and have Pokémon battles with each other. Still, I'd really like this madness to end. I just want a quiet life."

"Hey! You! Over there!"  
What the? Who was that guy talking to? Probably not to me, so…  
"You there! The one with the white cap and the shorts!"  
She looked around. Indeed there was someone there waving and running towards her.  
What the…? What could he want?  
"Excuse me… You don't happen to be Touko, do you?"  
Okay, what…? How…?  
"Y- yeah… How do you know my name?"  
"Did you not know? You're famous in Castelia!"  
Touko blinked dumbfoundedly.  
"Seriously?"  
"Oh yeah! We all know you of your fight with Plasma! Many of us idol the fact that you're in constant danger, yet your strong will and athletic skills almost seem to just shrug it off, despite being only a child!"  
This is the first time she had ever heard of this. She had idols?  
Hmm, this guy might be a Plasma grunt, better watch out, but if it's true…  
"I'm thrilled to have just met you! Shame my friend isn't here right now, she's a big fan. But, err, keep doing what you're doing! We're rooting for you!"  
"Oh, well, err, thanks. I don't know what to say…"  
"Well, see you around!" He said, walking away.

Touko just kind of stood there for a few minutes.  
"Wow."  
Just then, Bianca came running.  
"Bianca! You're safe!"  
"Yeah. I'm fine. I didn't see Cheren, but he's probably fine too. What are you doing down here anyway, I thought we were going to meet at the plaza?"  
"Oh, we were, I was making my way there, but I guess I just kinda got lost in thought or something."  
"Well let's make our way there now."

When they arrived, they saw that Cheren was already there, and he was still in one piece. Excellent.  
"Cheren! We're fine! Just a bit late, that's all!" Touko shouted over to him  
"Good to know!" He shouted back.  
Once they had made their way to Cheren, they sat down.  
"Are your guys' Pokémon fine?" Touya asked them.  
"Yep. Just got them healed." Bianca said.  
"Mine were already fine" Cheren said.  
"Listen, I haven't told you guys this, but this really weird thing happened while I was making my way here."  
"What's that?" Bianca asked  
She told them about the guy that talked to her.  
"I'm gonna be honest" Cheren said "I had a feeling you were famous, but I assumed you knew."  
"Well I had no idea." Bianca said "That's bizarre. But kinda cool I guess. There are people rooting for you, Touko!"  
"I know! How unexpected is that!"

Just then, Bianca's Xtransceiver went off.  
"Oh, excuse me guys. I gotta take this."  
It was a regular call, not a video call, and it was from her father.  
"Hello? Hey Dad. You don't call often."  
A few seconds passed.  
"Right…"

Her face fell.  
"Oh."  
Another uncomfortable moment.  
"No, yeah, I understand. I should have known really."

"Well, I was hoping you would tell me this sooner."

"Okay… But, but Dad, will I ever see them again?"

She leaned back onto the bench, and didn't say anything.  
"Right."

"Okay. See you soon."

"Love you too."  
She hung up, and bit her lip.

"What…..?" Touko asked.  
"You know when you two convinced my Dad to let me join my Pokémon?"  
"Yeah..."  
"Well, there being a war and all that, he's changed his mind, and he's decided to move our family to the other side of the continent."  
Touko gave that a second to sink in.  
"Oh... Bianca..."  
"He expects me to make my way to Nuvema right now. We're moving tomorrow."  
"I'm so sorry..."  
She shook her head "It's not your fault."  
"I'll miss you. This team won't be the same without you. You've helped us with so many things."  
"I've gotta go guys. I can't be late."  
"I'll come with you..." Touko said  
"No, don't. I don't think my father would appreciate that. You're the one they want. When I'm with you, I'm in danger."  
"Bianca, I'm coming with you anyway. I don't think it's fair for your father to say that we can't see each other again, just like that."  
Bianca looked at Touko.  
"You're kidding" Touko said.  
"Sorry Touko."  
She got up and summoned her Archeops.  
"I'll see if I can convince him to have us meet at the dock over here tomorrow. I'll let you know via the Xtransceiver."  
She got on Archeops and motioned to fly towards Nuvema.  
And just like that, she was leaving. Away from Castelia, away from Unova, and perhaps away from their lives.  
Touko and Cheren looked at each other.  
"Please excuse me for a second Touko" Cheren said, his voice shaking slightly, and he ran off towards the city streets.  
Touko sat back on the bench just like Bianca did.  
"I hate you, Plasma." She muttered.

Just then, a kind of whooshing noise. Before she could instinctively move out of the way however, it was too late. An ear splitting crashing was heard and not much than 5 meters away from her was a massive rock that was burning in multiple different colors.  
She needed to change her location, right now.  
Sighing, she got up and summoned Unfezant to take her to Driftveil.  
"I hope there are markets open today."  
She quickly made her way out of the park and onwards to Driftveil before too many more people rushed over to see the meteor.

She and Cheren had trouble sleeping that night. Bianca was leaving them tomorrow… Connected only by the Xtranciever they had, perhaps forever. Things weren't gonna be the same. If it wasn't for her, there's a chance that Touko would never have become a Pokémon trainer. Bianca knew that her parents didn't want her to become a trainer, but she also knew that it was Touko's desire, and she fought to help Touko's dream become a reality.  
Maybe, maybe if Plasma is abolished they can forget about it all and Bianca can come back.  
Just then, the Xtransceiver on the floor next to Touko's bed made a sound. Odd, that someone would massage her this late… Maybe it was Bianca.  
She leaned to her side and picked it up. It was message from Bianca to her and Cheren.  
"_i talked to my father, i convinced him to have as meet at the dock tomorrow_"  
Touko sighed. "Well…" she thought "I suppose it could be worse, at least I get to see her one more time…"  
She quickly typed a reply, "_thx for letting me know_"  
After that, she put it back down. That was that then.

It was just past lunch. The weather was not great but it wasn't too bad either. Touko, Cheren and Bianca's family were standing on the harbor nearby the boat they were boarding. Juniper was there as well.  
"Oh, I'm gonna miss you too Tepig. I still remember the first match we had."  
"It's an Emboar now, Touko." Bianca said, trying to smile.  
"I know, but it will always be Tepig to me."  
"You know, I'm glad I got to keep all my Pokémon. They could have told me to abandon this place altogether, but at least I'll have something to remember you guys by."  
"I remember how you helped us find Pokémon." Cheren began. He was obviously on the same train of thought ask Touko last night. "You knew your father didn't approve of it but you fought for us anyway. Your generosity…" He paused.  
"Well, it's out of this world."  
Bianca teared up. She walked forward and embraced Touko and Cheren.  
"I just wish I had more time to spend with you guys…"  
Touko patted her back. "Well, maybe if we win this war, you can one day return."  
"I can only wish."  
"Yeah. It's not over until the very end. Remember that.  
They stayed unmoving for a minute.

Then, Bianca stepped back and wiped her eyes.  
"So, what now?" Cheren asked.  
"I don't know…" was all Bianca could say.  
Just then, her Emboar looked at her expectantly.  
Bianca looked at him, and then back at her friends.  
"Emboar says he wants to battle one more time."  
Touko raised her eyebrows. Bianca must have had a true bond with her Emboar if she knew what he wanted like that without words.  
"Okay then… Let's see how good we are. Once more, just like the good old times."  
First she battled Touko, then Cheren. She beat them both.  
"Wow, you did pretty well Bianca" Touko said "And I've been training my Pokémon."  
"Well, you've gotta be prepared, especially during times like this" Bianca said  
"True. Very true."  
"Oh, excuse me, I should heal my Pokémon" Bianca said, making her way to the Pokémon center.  
"Wait!" Touko quickly shouted.  
"What?" Bianca said, stopping in her tracks.  
"I wanna spend as much time with you as I can right now." Touko said, throwing her 6 revives and 6 full restores.  
"Aww, Touko, you don't have to…"  
"But I want to." She said.

The 3 sat down and chatted.

Then, it was time. The ship was about to leave, and it was calling for any passengers to come on board.  
"Oh… I've gotta go guys…" She said.  
She sheepishly waved to Touko.  
"Let us know when you get there, Bianca." Cheren said.  
"I will do. Hey. See you around." Bianca said to Cheren, holding out her fist in front of Cheren.  
"Oh" Cheren said, nervously laughing. He fistbumped Bianca.  
"Go, your parents are waiting" Touko said.  
Bianca looked over at the ship, then back to her friends, and ran towards the ship.  
Not long afterwards, they separated the walkway between the harbour and the ship. This was it.  
Touko and Cheren ran to the side of the pavement. Bianca was standing next to her parents, waving at them. They waved back.  
"I'll miss you!" Bianca said.  
The ship set sail to the distance. Bianca was getting smaller and smaller until she wasn't distinguishable between all the other people.  
Touko rested her head on Cheren's shoulder, and he put his arm around her.  
"At least she'll be safe now." He said.  
"Yeah…"

Just then, thunder could be heard.

They looked around.  
_Something was wrong._

The weather wasn't much worse, in fact it was better than earlier. The sun was shining, and there wasn't any sign of rain in any direction.  
"Up there!" somebody shouted.  
There was a meteor. Another meteor, just like the one that just missed Touko yesterday.  
It was heading for the ship.  
Touko stepped back.  
_This could not be happening.  
_"Oh my god… _Oh my god!_"  
There was nothing they could do. They could try to call Bianca, but then what? She probably wouldn't even answer before the meteor hit the ship.  
Touko looked away, her head in her hands.  
Cheren continued watching, he could see everything. Any second now…

_CRASH_

The meteor just about hit the boat, but only a small part of the corner. Nevertheless, widespread panic ensued, not just on the Boat, but at the harbor as well.  
Cheren knew Bianca's position on the boat when she left. If she hadn't moved, she's still alive now… But for how long?  
"Please tell me this isn't happening" Touko said tearing up.  
"Most of the ship wasn't touched, but..." Cheren said.  
"But what!?" Touko said turning to look back at the ship.  
"But it looks like it's sinking now."  
Indeed it was. Slowly but steadily, it was losing its balance.  
The people on the boat were ready though, they were getting the lifeboats ready right now. People were already boarding it. But was Bianca safe? They couldn't tell, the ship was too far away, the people all looked the same.  
Just then, Touko and Cheren could see someone on a lifeboat waving their arms, indicating that they were fine.  
"Is that Bianca?" Touko asked.  
"I don't know." Cheren replied  
"You're the one with the glasses."  
"Yeah, but they don't give me supervision."  
"Your eyesight is probably better than mine though."  
He squinted and leaned forward.  
"I just can't tell." he said.  
"Well, if she's safe, she'll send us a message with the Xtransceiver."  
"Hopefully."  
"She will."  
Then came the horrific wait.

Nothing.

"Come on Bianca. Come on Bianca. _For the love of god Bianca, please be alive!_"  
"Maybe Bianca would rather wait until she's on land to use it."  
Touko lost it.  
"_#&$% you, Plasma!_" She screamed into the air.  
She fell onto her knees and started sobbing uncontrollably.  
Cheren knew Touko. He knew there was no point in trying to comfort her now. He sat down on a nearby bench and prayed for Bianca.  
"Please let Bianca be safe. _Please let Bianca be safe…_"

2 hours had passed. They were sitting down on a bench in Nimbasa City. The upbeat, cheery theme music was playing in the background, but not for them. For them, there was just silence.  
Touko was spending the entire time staring at her Xtransceiver, but no matter how long she stared at the screen, nothing happened.  
"Maybe it fell in the water, I don't know." Touko suggested.  
"But how do you accidentally throw a phone in the water?"  
"Well the ship was tilting pretty badly when they got on the lifeboats."  
"Yeah…"  
Touko put her Xtransceiver down. "I'm gonna find someone. Anyone who will listen, to fight Plasma."  
"But how? Their fort is guarded by several legendary Pokémon who have been trained to attack the trainers rather than the Pokémon."  
"I don't know, but I'll find a way. I'll find a way to avenge Bianca, even if it takes the rest of my life."  
"Touko, I love your idea, but let's be realistic, the whole of Unova is already fighting them. The elite four and Gym leaders are locked up. The regions around Unova have started to close their borders because they don't wanna be involved. Who else is there?"  
"Well, I'd better start searching."

_17 June 2011_

Touko knocked on the front door.  
After a few seconds the door opened by a tiny amount, still held by a chain. Someone looked through the gap.  
"Who are you and what do you want?"  
"Hey, it's Touko, you know, that wanted trainer."  
The face disappeared for a second. When it came back, there were 2 people.  
"Yeah, that's Touko" one told the other "I'd recognize her anywhere."  
They closed the door. A faint clicking sound, and they opened it again, this time entirely.  
"Sorry about that Touko. You know how it is. Ever since Plasma took over it hasn't been safe for us."  
"That's okay. Listen, I was wondering if I could ask you something." She said, walking indoors and closing the door behind her.  
"What is it?" They asked.  
"What happened to your lab ever since Plasma came here?"  
"Well, they shut down any lab they could find, but other than that, not much. We can still live here, we're not gonna get locked up, but you know, we'd still rather not go outside."  
"But you can't conduct any experiments, right?"  
"Well, not as far as they are concerned, no. They don't want us coming up with anything that could help us, but listen..."  
The scientist leaned forward and spoke more quietly.  
"We have recently built a new lab underground, and we're on the verge of something big here."  
"Can I see?"  
The scientist looked at the others, they nodded.  
"Come with me, Touko."

They took her to a part of the apartment she'd never seen before, the part with all the storage rooms, and they opened a door.  
It was empty except for a ladder going down a large hole in the ground.  
"Is that legal?" Touko asked  
"Probably not" The scientist said "but I don't think they're worried about that at the moment."  
They lead her down underground.  
They flicked a switch and the almost pitch black room became bright.  
"Wow, you built all this in just a few months?"  
"Well, I had a little help."  
They came to a doorway frame.  
"What's this?" Touko asked. "Guys, your doorway is broken, you can just walk around it."  
She looked at them "Or is it not finished?"  
"It's not just an ordinary doorway..." they said "Watch this."  
They quickly tapped some commands into a laptop.  
"Oh, stand back, and shut your eyes until I say it's okay to open them."  
Touko did so. After a few seconds, a weird electronic roaring sound could be heard a few times, then followed a surge of light coming from the doorway. Touko was glad they told her to close her eyes because she could tell through her closed eyelids that this light was bright.  
Then, it went away.  
"Okay, it's safe to open them." They said.  
Touko opened her eyes. The doorway lead to somewhere else now, like a portal to another world. Of course, right now all that could be seen past the doorway was just pitch black. It was amazing, she looked at it from many angles but from all of them it was just black, nothing else.  
"This… Is a trans-universal door. It can go to almost any possible universe out there."  
"Is it safe to go in?" She asked.  
"Hmm, no, don't. Right now we have the coordinates set to a blank universe. Go out there and you'll suffer the effects of being in a vacuum in space."  
"...And that's bad?"  
"It's not pretty, no. The reason we're safe is thanks to our brilliant scientists who came up with an invisible barrier that we can walk through, but air cannot."  
"That is so cool." She said in awe.  
"It absolutely is."  
"Err, forgive me, but what's the actual practical application of this though?"  
"Well, we're still working on it, but we think that one day we can connect to a universe just like ours but without Team Plasma. The idea is we can get an entire new Pokémon world to fight for us, or at the very least provide a safe escape for people here, like scientists, or…"  
"Or me." she said.  
"Or you." they confirmed.  
She clapped her hands together.  
"I can't wait!" She said.  
"We can expect to find ourselves a new parallel universe like ours soon. We're guessing a few weeks."  
"Listen, can I have your number? I wanna be there as soon as you get it fully working."  
"Err, I suppose we could do that, yeah."  
"Great!"  
She could see the possibilities now… A new home for her, or better, an end to Team Plasma over here.  
"But listen, please don't go making this stuff public, we don't want to risk Team Plasma finding out about this."  
"I only plan on telling one person, he's a close friend, and he can keep a secret, trust me."  
"Hmmm…"  
"Please?"  
"Well, okay then, but just please be careful. If they find out, we're in deep trouble, there's no telling what they could do with this."  
"You have my word."

_Meanwhile..._

Black Bianca lay down on her new bed. What a bizarre past few days this had been. First she had to leave her friends, then she left on a ship that got struck by a meteor. Good thing they had those life boats or she would probably be dead now. Still, it's such a shame that she had to drop her Xtransceiver. She did wave over to the city at them, but she didn't even know if they saw it.  
What mattered was that she, her family and her Pokémon were all alive and well. But she still worried about them two, they're still stuck in this war, and she has no contact with them anymore, anything could happen.  
Her best bet was the news. Maybe they could tell her when this war was over. Maybe then they could see each other once again.  
Just maybe…  
As worried as she was, she was so tired after a day like this.  
Just before she went to sleep she considered renaming her Emboar after Cheren, but then she fell asleep and forgot the idea.

_8 July 2011_

Touya was eating breakfast while watching the 8:00 news.  
"_Many are calling this a scientific breakthrough, and the scientists at Striaton University are even announcing to the world that they will be making their first connection to a new universe today.  
The portal they're activating makes use of new quantum laws only recently discovered. They say the implications are staggering…"_

"What this? His mother asked.  
"Apparently they've found a way to connect with different versions of the Pokémon world. They say that they could make a connection with virtually any kind of universe and that they're opening the portal to the first parallel one today."  
"That sounds impressive."  
"Yeah, and apparently it can be used in many useful ways, but we're not sure what yet."  
"Can't they just connect with a universe with lots of money?" She suggested jokingly.  
"Nah, it's not that simple. For a connection to be made, there has to be an other side that's doing the same thing, or something like that."  
"Will you be going? It's not far from here."  
"Oh yeah, that would be so cool to watch, and I don't have much else to do today."  
"Okay then."

_8 July 2011_

Are you ready Touko?  
"Sure am." She replied.  
"Here we go. Remember, shield your eyes."  
They entered the commands into the computer.  
First came the noises, then the bright light, and lastly the silence.  
Touko opened one eye "Did it work?"  
"Hang on, we're experiencing some stability issues."  
The other side looked like the original lab, only everything was glitchy and shaky, like an old TV with a connection problem.  
After about half a minute of furious typing, they looked over to the portal. "That should do it."  
The image stabilized. Standing in front of her was herself wearing a pair of safety goggles, only, only…

_She was a boy in the other universe._

They stared at each other for a while. Then the boy equivalent to her asked the scientists asked of it was safe to cross the portal.  
"It is now, yeah."  
He slowly approached, and ever so carefully crossed the doorway, and then slowly walked up to Touko.

"Hi." He said blankly.  
"Hi" She said, equally blankly.  
He cleared his throat.  
Touko held out her hand "The name's Touko."  
"I'm Touya" he said, taking it.  
Another really weird silence ensued between them.  
"So this is your universe, huh?" Touya said, walking around "Why is the lab different? You had to make a new one?"  
"Yeah. Wh-" She stopped.

She just realized, they were connecting from the old lab.  
Their old lab wasn't shut down.  
_Their world was safe.  
_"Why? Well, I was just about to ask why you made a new one."  
"It's, it's because…"  
Touko grabbed Touya's arm.  
"Listen. This universe is dangerous. This version of your region is waging war against Team Plasma."  
"Team Plasma? Those pathetic guys? Wow."  
"They're not so pathetic in this world. Many people are in danger, and I'm in the middle of it, I'm their most wanted."  
Touya looked over to her again in pure disbelief "...Really?"  
"Yeah. That's why we made this connection, to find a universe that wasn't at war."  
"Wow."  
"Why did you make your connection?"  
"Oh, no real reason, we just thought it would be cool to connect to a parallel universe."  
"Well, it worked."  
"Yep."  
She ran over to Touya's universe.  
It was all there. Everything before Team Plasma took over was there.  
"This is too good to be true."  
"Is your universe really that bad?" Touya asked.  
"Yes! Recently I lost my friend Bianca to those fiends."  
"Wait, your Bianca is dead?!"  
"Well, she's probably dead. She never answered her Xtransceiver."  
"What about Cheren?"  
"He's fine, we don't talk much anymore, but we're still friends."  
Touya looked around one more time, then walked over to the scientists.

"Listen, once we break the connection between these 2 worlds, can we ever come back?"  
"Actually…" They said "We can come back anytime."  
"Will you? Cause I kinda wanna learn more about Touko's world."  
"We can do that, in fact, I don't plan on breaking the connection for a while if my counterpart doesn't mind, because we still need to see if we can find help over in your world."  
"No problem at all." Said his counterpart.  
Touko and Touya looked delighted.  
"Hey Touya…" Touko asked.  
"Yeah?"  
"Seeing as this door is here to stay for now, do you mind if you show me your world?"  
"Err, yeah, I can do that, sure. What, right now?"  
"Yeah!"  
"Well, okay I guess"  
"Great! Let's go!" She cheered dragging Touya along.

After they were both downstairs in Touya's universe, the two portal managing scientists looked at each other.  
"Awww…" He said.  
"Listen," the other said "We should probably keep track of who goes through this portal."  
"Oh, good idea" the other said.

_19 September 2011_

Touya, Ethan and Super Rike were sitting on a bench in National Park, Johto. Standing next to them was Ty, the talking Typhlosion.  
"I still can't believe you let me go." He said "I mean, why didn't you tell me anything?"  
"Well that would have been a really uncomfortable conversation. Hey Ty, I'm letting you go. You'll have a different trainer tomorrow."  
"But to just let me go…? Just like that?"  
"Well the way I understood it, when you let a Pokémon go, they feel alienated at first, yes, but they learn to build a new life, and I knew that Touya was a fantastic trainer that had so much more to offer than me."  
"Oh there's no denying that. Touya is great. He managed to get me the last few levels you couldn't give me by only training me… But he's not my trainer, you know. He's not the trainer I've known since childhood."  
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you felt that way. But hey, you're with me again now, aren't you?"  
"Well yeah, but only because Touya was kind enough to bring you back to me."  
"Yeah" Touya said "I know how much Ethan means to you."  
"Hey…" Ethan said to Ty.  
"Yeah?"  
"It's good to have you back."  
Ty hugged Ethan.  
"_Woah! Ty! Watch out! Too tight! Too tight!"  
_Ty backed away and blushed.  
"Sorry."  
Ty sat down on the ground and started playing with the tiny amount of dirt on the floor "I like this place."  
"That's why we came here." Ethan said.  
"After all these years" Ethan thought to himself "I have a Pokémon that can talk back to me. It's so weird, and what's even weirder is that it's Ty speaking."  
The only reason his Typhlosion could talk is after he transferred him to Touya over the Shift Factory, he started teaching himself how to speak English just so he could ask him what the hell was going on via video chat.

Ethan took his friends and Ty on a journey around Johto and Kanto, to the lighthouse, to Ecruteak, to Routes K24 and K25, to Routes J47 and J48, to Goldenrod, to the Lake of Rage, to Routes K27 and K28…

After a long day of hiking and sightseeing, they were sitting down at the Celadon cafe.  
"Hey Sean" Ethan said to somebody else who was there "How is it going with Game Freak?"  
"They haven't changed" Sean said "Now they're going on about the end of the world."  
"Really? Well that's not like them. Still, they probably believe it. Bless. Hope they're not making a huge deal of it."  
"Sorry…" Touya interrupted "But who's Game Freak?"  
"Oh, they're just a group of crazy people who live in the Condominiums in this city. They call themselves Game Freak. They claim that they're some kind of God."  
"What, like Arceus?"  
"They claim that they made Arceus."  
"Wow, does anyone actually believe them?"  
"Nah, people just nod their heads and then get on with their lives. Most of the things they say don't make any sense anyway."  
Touya thought… That sounded oddly familiar…  
Ty was sitting in the corner devouring a chicken wing which he'd already stripped of all its meat.  
As they were leaving, they headed towards the place on Route K9 where the portal was.  
"I forgot to show you Unova." Touya said to Ethan "Maybe we could do that tomorrow."  
"Yeah, sure. Err, are there any laws saying you can't let your Pokémon walk beside you?"  
"Nope."  
"Oh great, I'll bring Ty then."  
"Maybe I should try that with my Serperior, just letting him walk outside of his pokéball." Touya thought to himself.

Later that day, Touya was home again.  
Hmm, there wasn't much on TV. Some random sports game, something related to buying houses, two Mudkips having a deep philosophical conversation…  
Eh, he was tired anyway. He turned the TV off and made his way to his room.  
Man, this new portal thing had a lot of potential. Touko could finally battle and trade with all his friends. Ethan can talk to Ty anytime he liked now. Hell, he even had a new region to explore now, him and Ethan. Everything just felt that much closer.  
Ethan felt the same way. Ty was back. Things had not gone according to plan, but he didn't care. The fact that he could see Ty again swamped that. What's better was he could go anywhere he liked with Ty now, provided it was in the Johto/Unova region. Super Rike had really outdone himself. God he was glad to have him as a friend.  
Meanwhile, Super Rike was leaning against the mountain he had carved his portals into. Satisfied, he had opened the left portal, the one back to his home, and left for the day.  
Looks like things were finally starting to look up for Super Rike.

_21 January 2013_

A kid was standing alone. He had messy black hair which covered one eye, and dark green skin.  
He was standing in a wasteland. Long devoid of any life, and met only with the quiet wind in the background.  
In front of him was a gravestone. Presumably one he'd built himself. The most disturbing part of it however, is what was carved on it.

_R.I.P.  
Everything_

Underneath it stood a photo of 4 best friends that he took himself. The photo was worn out, and it had lost most of its color by now.  
"It's been one year…" The kid said "As far as the humans on this world know, I'm still alive somewhere. I tried to tell them it's me, but who believes someone with green skin?"  
He looked down, clearly troubled.  
"But even if they did, they wouldn't care about me. Nobody ever does. All they care about is getting saved. I don't miss being a superhero, at all."  
He screamed in agony and kicked the gravestone, which broke in two.  
"I swear to god I'm gonna find the whatever did this to me, and when I find them I'm gonna make them immortal like me, and then I'm gonna throw them in a torture chamber to endure for the rest of eternity."  
He left the wasteland, not caring where the top half of the gravestone went, or anything else in the universe for that matter.

Back at Super Rike's space home which since the past few months didn't look like a home as much as it looked like a scrapyard orbiting Earth, this odd green-skinned fellow was sitting down and brainstorming.  
"Why would that prince bring me back to life to fight this war if I don't even know where the war is happening?"  
After much thinking, he came to a theory.  
"Wait, when I was given my superpowers, I was told that it was all a part of a prophesied set of events. Maybe I don't need to find the war, maybe it will find me… But that still doesn't explain why Prince Skew needed me in particular to fight in it. The only thing I can do is create a warp to the time when he was still alive."  
And then it him. Skew needed him alive because he was the only being that could tell Skew about the war and get him to fight in it. No other living being living on Earth in history could just go back in time and introduce himself to an omniversal war, even if they were linked (which as far as anyone in the universe knew was the only possible way to travel through time), they just didn't know how to. He was the first.  
He stood up. "Very well, I'll introduce Prince Skew to my timeline and together we can search for the war, the war we need to fight in, and the war Prince Skew dies in at age 24."  
He gets started on a time portal.  
"Now, if I'm right, Prince Skew will recognise me the first time I see him seeing as our lives are now connected. That will shave off a lot of persuasion time."  
After many days of restless building, it was done.  
"Well, this is it. Prince Skew, here I come. Touko, Touya, Cheren, Bianca, Red, Ethan, Latios, Ty…"  
And with all of his power, muttered the words without bursting into tears "...You will be avenged."

He jumped in.


	3. Chapter 3

_13 December 2011_

Touko was sitting close to the Nimbasa ferris wheel. Yesterday her friends had counted how many Pokémon they collectively had. She forgot the exact number, but it was just over 400 Pokémon, which was pretty impressive seeing as there were only 649 officially documented Pokémon, at least, at the time. Next to her was a young kid she had never seen before. For her age, she really didn't look like somebody you ought to just leave outside, especially not the middle of winter, but in the world of Pokémon, Touko had seen weirder things.

"I don't see you around here often." Touko said.  
"I only come here in the winter." she replied.  
"Wait" Touko thought "I've been here plenty of times in the winter and I've never seen..."  
"Oh... That was in my universe, of course it must be different here."  
"I've never seen you before either." the kid said.  
"Nah, I don't come here often, I'd rather be around Nuvema with my friends."  
"Suit yourself. I love it here, you get to meet and battle with so many interesting people, and you get to ride the Ferris wheel with whoever's interested."  
Touko looked at the Ferris wheel. Good way to get to know the city, I guess.  
"I'm Winter, what's your name?" She asked Touko.  
"Err, Touko."  
"What do you say Touko?" She said raising her pokéball.  
"You assume I'm a trainer."  
"I know a trainer when I see one" she said cheerily.  
"This kid is funny" she thought "I like that."  
"Alright then." Touko said getting up from the bench along with Winter.  
Nearby, the Ferris wheel watcher notices noises and flashes of light coming from the Ferris Wheel entrance.  
"Hmm, let me guess, another Pokémon fight."  
He leaned over to see what was going on.  
"Yep, it's those guys again." He sighed "I should really make a rule about battling that close to the Ferris Wheel."  
"Yeah!" Touko shouted in victory. "Sorry Winter, maybe I should have warned you."  
"No big deal" Winter said "happens a lot."

Just then a voice called over to her "Hey! There you are!"  
Touya came running over to the two of them.  
"What brings you here?" Touko called to him.  
"Oh, I'm just here to meet some- Oh, I see you've already met her."  
Touya stopped to catch his breath.  
"Okay. Touko, this is Winter. Winter, this is Touko."  
"We know." Touko and Winter said in unison.  
"We already battled." Touko added.  
"Oh right, what was the outcome?"  
Touko waved and smiled.  
"You two guys are good friends, aren't you? I can tell." Winter said "You look the same, speak the same way, even your names are nearly the same."  
"Err, yeah, we're uh, very good friends." Touya said.  
"Ooh, we should ride the Ferris wheel together, the 3 of us!" Winter suggested.  
"Is that possible?" Touko asked.  
"I dunno, let me check." Touya said walking over to the information sign.  
"Nope. It says it's for 2 people only."  
"Hmm" Winter thought out loud "Well, it was me and Touko who battled, sooooooo..."  
"No, really, go, I don't mind" Touya said "you two have never been there together before."  
"Really? Yaaaay! Come on Touko!" Winter said running in.  
"Well" Touko told Touya shrugging her shoulders "I guess I have no choice."  
She went in with Winter, and the Ferris wheel started.  
Touya watched as the two slowly made it off the ground. He could see Winter enthusiastically bugging Touko, and Touko standing there nodding and saying "yeah".  
Amused, Touya took a second to check his pokédex. How many different Pokémon did we collectively own again?  
Wow. 408. If we could somehow get to 500, that would be ab-

"409"

What the...?  
Touya could have sworn the pokédex flickered for a second there. What did it say, 409? How was that possible? The pokédex was only counting Pokémon Touya had caught, and he wasn't catching anything right now. Maybe he dropped a pokéball somewhere? No, that's not how pokéballs work.  
What was even weirder was it changed back to 408, which was flat out impossible. You can't subtract a Pokémon from your pokédex. Once it's there it's there.  
Has this ever happened to anyone? Perhaps it's a bug in the pokédex…  
Touko and Winter came walking out of the ferris wheel.  
"You okay Touya?" Touko asked.  
"Yeah, my pokédex is acting weird."  
"Must be from all those new Pokémon."  
"It's probably a glitch, I'll get it looked at." He said, putting it away.  
"See you later guys!" Winter said, before she ran off however, she paused.  
"You know, you two should go on the ferris wheel sometime."  
She smiled and then ran off.  
Touya and Touko looked at each other.  
How did they not think of that before?

"You know there's not been much to do since you're already Level 100, is there?" Ethan told Ty.  
"Nah"  
They were walking in Viridian forest.  
"Not that I care, I'm just glad to be able to do this with you again."  
"Me too."

"Hey! Your Pokémon can talk?"  
A bug catcher came walking his direction.  
"Err" Ethan looked at Ty "Y-yeah, it can."  
"Hi" said Ty, raising a paw.  
"That's amazing. Hey… How old are you?" the bug catcher asked Ty.  
"I'm 2." he said.  
"Huh..." Ethan thought "TIL."  
"That is so cool, I wish I had one." The bug catcher said.  
"Thanks." Ty said, scratching his neck in a cute way.  
"Have you thought about taking him to a talent show?" He asked Ethan.  
Ethan had honestly never thought about that.  
"Oooh! Can we?" Ty said enthusiastically.  
"Err, well I'll think about it" Ethan said. Clearly he needed more time than that to decide "Aren't there a lot of talking Pokémon though? What about that Meowth, or am I just thinking about that TV show?"  
"I don't know, maybe you should find out."  
Ethan was thinking… Surely there were at least some Pokémon out there that could speak, legendary Pokémon maybe?

Just then, Ethan's pokégear went.  
"Ah, excuse me." Ethan said, searching for his pokégear. It was an audio call by somebody he didn't know.  
Hmm, that sounds suspicious.  
He took the call.  
Nothing but soft static.  
"Hello?" Ethan said.  
Still nothing.  
"This is Ethan." he continued.  
No noise except for that static.  
"Hello?" He said again, this time louder.  
No response.  
"Ugh." he said, hanging up. Who just gave his number out like that? That's really annoying.  
Then, another noise could be heard.  
"Woah. That's weird." The bug catcher said. He searched his pocket. His cell phone was ringing.

"_Oh good god…_" Ethan thought.  
"Hellooo?" The bug catcher said.  
He waited a few seconds.  
The bug catcher hung up "Did you just get that exact same number?"  
"Yeah."  
"And you got that same hissing noise?"  
"Uh-huh."  
"What do you think it means?"  
Ethan hated to say "I really don't know…"  
There was an uncomfortable silence.  
When Ethan spoke again, he appeared to break the bug catchers focus on something "Listen, I've had enough freaky stuff for today. I'm just gonna go."  
"Err, yeah. Okay. Bye." he said, going off doing something else. Ethan assumed it was more bug catching.

When he emerged from the Viridian forest he shut his eyes tightly for a few seconds.  
"Agh. Can't stay there too long. Darn this hayfever."  
He looked over to Ty, who wasn't in the slightest bit surprised about what happened back there.  
Ethan thought about what to do next. He hadn't visited the Pewter museum recently. Maybe there's something new th-  
"Hey Ethan! Ethan!"  
"What is it?" Ethan said, looking over to Ty.  
"Look! I found a cloud!" He said excitedly, holding up a small piece of fluff.

Touya and Touko were sitting inside Touya's room in White Nuvema.  
Touya looked at the framed photo of him as a young child and his parents, sitting next to his laptop on his desk, and sighed.  
"Touko…" He said to her.  
"Yeah?" She said.  
"I've been meaning to ask you something, that's got me thinking a lot recently."  
"Yeah, what's that?"  
"Well…" Touya began "First lemme tell you that I know this is a sensitive subject, and trust me, you don't have to answer. I really don't want you to feel pressured here, okay?"  
"Okay...' Touko said. She had a feeling that she knew where this was going.  
"But, we've known each other for a while now, and I've gotten to know more about your world, and its dangers…"  
"Oh yeah, we're going down that road." She thought.  
"...And… Well…"  
He thought about this for a second. He didn't want to beat around the bush.  
"You know when we first met and you told me about the Cheren and Bianca in your universe…"  
"Yeah?"  
"Well, I just wanted to know about, about…"  
"What happened to Bianca?" Touko said.  
She saw right through him. "Yeah. That."  
Touko sighed and lowered her head. It had come to that.  
"No pressure." Touya added.  
"No, that's okay…" Touko said. If there was any time to tell him about it, it was now.  
"Well, it all started one day in my Castelia…"  
"Right…"  
"We were just talking, it was a normal day, and Bianca got a phone call."  
All the horrific memories were coming back to her of that week. That dreadful week.  
She closed her eyes and continued. "It was her father."  
Touya had a lot of questions at this point, but he waited patiently.  
"He said he changed his mind and didn't think Bianca was safe enough, and he expected Bianca to leave us and come back home right away…"  
Touko tried to hide it, but Touya knew this was making her really upset. Her voice was already getting shaky. He really didn't like to see her that way.  
"We didn't even have time to talk about it, she had to go. She said she was moving with her father to the other side of the continent the very next day…"  
She breathed in deeply. Touya didn't say anything.  
"Then Bianca and Cheren left and then… There…"  
Touya shifted uncomfortably, should he say something?  
"There was an attack, meant for me. A meteor fell down and crashed right next to my bench. I should have died right then."  
She knew there was no point in hiding it anymore. She cupped her face in her hands and started sniffeling.  
"I could hardly sleep that night. I didn't want to think about leaving her. She was the bond between our friendship. Without her, me and Cheren just got along well."  
She took a minute or two to bring herself to the next part.  
"So the next day we were saying our last farewells, we had a Pokémon battle with her, she won them both, and then, and then the ship…"  
She sharply breathed in. She couldn't do this.  
"It's okay…" Was all Touya could say.  
"..._And she left for the ship, with her family… And the ship departed and we were waving and…"  
_She found herself sobbing again.  
Touya knew she would probably fight it off, but if she needed it, she needed it, and he put his arm around her. She didn't fight it off.  
"_There was another one of those meteors... Heading directly for the ship."  
_Touya felt his heart fall, much in the same way he pictured the ship.  
"I'm so sorry Touko…" he rubbed her back, although he was pretty sure there was no point.  
Touko wrapped her arms around Touya and continued sobbing into his side.  
"_I tried to see if she was okay. Cheren said she would tell us through the Xtransceiver and we waited and waited but she never said anything back!"  
_She started sobbing even harder.  
Touya didn't want this. He didn't want to see any of his friends this way, let alone Touko… But what could he do?  
Whatever it was, what was most important right now was to just be there for her. That was his goal now. He'd stay here however long she needed him.

After a while, Touko got her thoughts back on track. Come on, she needed to pull herself together.  
"_I'm… I'm sorry. Oh, I feel so ridiculous right now."  
_"Don't worry about that, really. I couldn't even begin to understand how you feel. I'm just glad you told me."  
"_Touya…"  
_"Yeah?"  
She looked at him "_I'm glad you asked, otherwise I may never have told you…"  
_She took a deep breath and sat upright.  
"You okay?" Touya asked.  
"_Yeah, I'm fine." _she said, her voice still shaky.  
"Do you need anything?"  
"_No really, you being here for me is enough."  
_They looked into each others eyes.  
Touya laughed nervously and looked away.  
They stayed there, their heads buzzing with thoughts for another… How long were they there? He didn't care. He could stay here all day if he needed to.  
"You know Touya…" Touko began.  
"Hmm?" He said, listening.  
"When I look at you, you seem to act like I'm someone completely different."  
"Well…" Touya began.  
Aww hell no. He was not just about to say "You are"... She wasn't! They were the exact same person! The only difference between them was one gene!  
"...I guess I do, yeah."  
"Do you ever think about that? How similar we are? As soon as I knew you, I felt like I could trust you, like we had everything in common."  
Touya thought. He was too surprised to know of her existence to have any thoughts like that at the time, but he did, he never knew anyone that shared so much in common with him. They were like some kind of identical twins or something.  
Were they? Were they technically family? Or did they count as 2 different beings?  
"I don't know, it's so weird" Touya eventually replied "I don't know how to feel, cause it's not something that's ever happened before, I mean think about it, we're the first two people in both our universes to have an exact copy of each other, besides the gender of course."  
"What do you think about that?" She asked "Do you see us as friends, or just the same person, or as family, or as…"  
Touya looked up.  
"Or as, you know…" She finished somewhat lamely.  
"I don't…" Touya said "I don't know."  
He didn't know. But he had a feeling…  
"Well, do you think about me a lot?"  
"Err…" He said, carefully picking his words "Increasingly."  
"Hmm…."  
"But, I don't know if it means something. I'm afraid Touko, what if we develop feelings for each other… Would that be okay, would that be moral, or would that be egotistic, or worse?"  
"Well, would you say we're related?"  
"When we met, we didn't act like we knew each other, I guess. I mean, we kind of didn't know what to say. You were more spontaneous, but you're like that with everyone."  
"I like to think we're two different people, but there's something in my mind telling me that we're not."  
"I'm no expert, but I'd go with we're different. If we have so much in common, our rooms would smell the same, wouldn't they... But they don't."  
"It's frustrating, because I really like you, but I don't want to take the next step, in case we are related."  
Touya went silent.  
"Touya? Are you okay? Touya?"  
"I err, I really like you too..." he said, staring in front of him, his mind racing.  
"Well, that's good to know."  
"Yeah..."  
"What are you thinking now?"  
"Well" Touya thought "Seeing as we're being open and honest now anyway..."  
"I kinda wanna get a DNA test."  
"What?"  
"To know if we're truly related."  
Touko looked at him.  
"Seriously?"  
Touya got another sinking feeling.  
"Yeah, I mean, why do you ask? It didn't... I was..."  
"I was thinking that too."  
_Phew, saved.  
_"Oh. Oh wow." He said.  
Touko looked around "Oh no, it's ridiculous. I mean, what would our mothers say?"  
"True..." Touya said.  
"Do you think we ever will though?"  
"Only time will tell."  
"Well, I'm glad we had time to talk. I enjoy taking the time to get us to know each other more."  
Touya looked at her "Me too."  
"Well, I didn't have anything else planned for today. What do you wanna do?"  
"We could take a walk outside, or I dunno, just play some Mario Kart over here."  
Touko thought.  
"I like walking, but there's such a bitter cold wind out today, so..."  
"Mario Kart then?"  
"Yeah, okay." She smiled.

"Blast this!"  
Super Rike was on Route K9.  
"I make portals, I expect them to work!"  
They weren't having it.  
"Ugh, whatever. I'll just stay here and catch a Pokémon or something, I dunno."  
He walked up to the grass.  
"If it's a Pikachu, I call the name 'Fuzzy Joe'."  
He crawled around until he found something.  
A Rattata.  
Super Rike rolled his eyes "Well, it's better than a Magikarp."  
He threw his one pokéball. It broke.  
He sighed. It was gonna be a long night…

_3 days later...  
_"Sir! Somebody broke out, sir!"  
It was N's castle in Black Unova. In the main hall Plasma were waging their war strategies.  
"What?!" Ghetsis shouted "How is that possible?!"  
"We don't know, all we know is that the bars have been blasted down. Whoever did it used force."  
"Whose cell is it?"  
"N's cell, sir."  
Ghetsis should have known "N…"  
"We think he may have used an outside source, but we don't know. All we know is it's powerful."  
"Don't just stand there! Find him! There's no tellin-"  
A loud high pitched shriek not unlike a microphone faded in and out again for a second.  
"Agh! What the…?!"  
N's face was on the far wall of the hall, almost like a projection. Nobody knew how he was doing it, but it was there. You could tell by his face that he was clearly being abused.  
"You ruined my life…" He said "Now I'm going to ruin yours."  
The projection disappeared. A lot of confusion ensued.  
Ghetsis growled. That N was really starting to become a thorn in his side.  
"Deploy the other 6 Sages. We're going to find that N."  
"...And then, sir?"  
"Then we're going to give him hell."  
A massive explosion sound emitted all around the hall, accompanied by a sudden earthquake that knocked them all off their feet. Alarm systems could be heard far off.  
"_Grrrrr, what now?!"  
_The back part of the castle was gone, along with most of the ceiling. Shortly afterwards, N could be seen outside, standing on the shoulder of the biggest Pokémon anyone had ever seen. Whatever it was, it made Reshiram look pathetic.  
"_What is that?"  
_"_I don't know! I've never seen a beast like that before!"  
_N looked into the castle with disgust, and threw a pokéball inside.  
It was a Heatmor, and a furious one at that.  
He started breathing fire upon anybody it could see. People panicked and ran to safety, some of them being forced to jump out of the castle into the sea below.  
N motioned to the Pokémon he stood on to get out of there.  
For such a massive Pokémon, it moved incredibly fast. They were nowhere to be seen almost immediately.

_The next morning_

Touya was sitting eating breakfast again. He was just about to go to school, and was watching the rest of the news broadcast.  
He'd recently caught up with the N from his universe again to tell him about the parallel universe he'd been visiting that was in danger. N looked like he didn't believe Touya though. He was glad he did tell N though, he was the only person who could have told his N about it.

"What?!"  
Touko and Cheren were in Black Castelia. They talking with someone nearby about the destruction of the castle.  
"But who did it? Who broke N out?"  
"We still don't know" the stranger said "they didn't have any security cameras set up."  
"But shouldn't the prisons have been guarded or something?"  
"Apparently, yes they should, but there were no guards there when N broke out."  
"This is so strange" Cheren said "first we fail to get parallel universes to help us and all of a sudden this happens."  
"But the weirdest part…" the stranger said "Is the Pokémon N was riding. I don't know much about it, but apparently it was part of ancient Pokémon mythology. Nobody knew it actually existed until now."  
"...And nobody knows how he came across it? So many questions."  
"Yeah."  
"Watch out!" Touko screamed, and stepped backwards, pulling Cheren back. Just then 2 attacks that looked like they were made out of air had crashed into the ground where they were standing.  
The stranger took a fair few steps back, staring at what just happened in pure disbelief.  
"It's okay" Touko said "I get this stuff a lot. I've had to cross huge gaps in collapsing buildings many times before."  
High above them, two Braviaries were plotting another attack at them.  
"Hey!" Touko yelled at them, they directed all their attention at Touko now.  
"Can't you see I was having a conversation?" She shouted upwards, whilst bringing out her Pokémon.  
The two Braviaries weren't difficult to take down. Obviously this was only a short range plan.  
"Even when they have a castle to build, they're always trying to catch me." She said, shaking her head.  
Then, Touko disappeared into thin air.  
"Wha…?! Touko! Where are you!?" Cheren cried.

She didn't know where she was, nor did she care, she probably wasn't going to stay alive for much longer.  
"Alright. You got me, well done. Please make the process quick." She said.  
"I'm not here to harm you…" Came a familiar voice.  
Confused, Touko got up, it took her a few seconds to regain her focus again.  
They were in a dark hole lit by candles, it looked as if it was underground, but had a few home-y like qualities to it as well, the thing that surprised her most though was who was standing in front of her.  
"You okay there?" N asked.  
"N… I haven't seen you since Plasma was still undercover." She said, standing up.  
"Yeah, well, I was locked away." he said.  
"But… Who broke you out?"  
"I did."  
"You broke yourself out?"  
"Heh, maybe I should have been a bit clearer, the other me broke me out."  
It took a few seconds for Touko to get it.  
"N from the other universe…"  
"That's the one."  
"Where is he now?"  
"Oh, he's here. We never left each other. We've been studying ways to win this war against Plasma."  
Touko sat down on a nearby chair.  
"Where are we?" She asked.  
"This is my new home. It's kind of temporary, it's only until we can get proper ground somewhere. We can teleport in and out thanks to a Pokémon we found in the other Ns universe. It's called Abra."  
Abra? Wasn't that a Kanto exclusive Pokémon? Ethan must have left it in White Unova.  
"So, I've been hearing about this Pokémon that you were seen using, and I was wondering…"  
"What it is?"  
"Yeah."  
"It's a legendary Pokémon that was part of mythology for about as long as we've been making stories. The other N was studying them since before he knew of my captivity. As it turns out, you need two items to release it. One of them was in this universe, and one was in the other, that's why they haven't been observed until now."  
He took from his pocket what looked like two pitch black marbles, aside from the light reflecting from it.  
"These are the Resu stones, when held in close proximity of each other, the Resu legendary Axia is released. Apparently there are two more Pokémon, but these are unlocked with other objects."  
"...And, do you have any of those yet?"  
N sighed "No, we don't, and we don't even know where to begin looking, but when together, their combined power is apparently unthinkable. They're so powerful, it defines human logic."  
"So, you're looking for them now, are you?"  
"Well, we're hoping to find the second one, but the third one, we've agreed is just too hard to find. Two is enough though, we figured. We don't want infinite power, just enough."  
"But, why did you bring me here?"  
"Two reasons. One, you're safe here. I needed you to find a place in this universe that isn't under Plasma's grasp, and two… We need you to find the second pair of objects."  
Touko thought. She didn't like the idea of just doing tasks for other people, but when it could help get rid of Plasma once and for all…  
"Right. What is it?" She asked.

"Aha! So that's why the portals haven't been working!"  
Super Rike was in his base.  
"Apparently… Look at this. Our universe is strictly speaking not part of the Pokémon universe, they live in different multiverses."  
"What does that mean?" Thomas asked.  
"It means that this portal has to cross a stupidly long way to connect to the Pokémon world."  
"But, I don't get it. I thought you said every universe is infinite."  
"Err, first off, the conventional human idea of infinite verses not infinite can't be applied to universes, you just can't, it's not that simple. But for simplicity's sake, let's assume that every universe is indeed infinite. The distances the portals have to travel aren't spatial distances, they're trans-dimensional distances. Again, the human idea of a dimension is completely wrong, but I just use the word "dimension" to get people to shut up."  
"You know, you're stuff is becoming harder and harder to believe." Thomas joked.  
"Yeah well, I haven't made a portal all the way to a universe like this before."  
"And you thought you'd connect to a world inspired by a video game?"  
"Well yes and no. Yes, the I connected to that universe because I like Pokémon, but technically I also invented Pokémon."  
"Wait, what?"  
"Oh yeah, as it turns out, making this portal created a rift below Japan and caused Pokémon to happen in this world in the first place. Time travel loops tend to happen like that. There's not much we can do about it."  
Super Rike went back to check the portal.  
"That guy's full of it." Thomas thought.

Super Rike emerged in Route K9.  
"Aah! There we go! Didn't take long for the portal to connect this time."  
He took out a screwdriver "Now, if I can rephrase the connection of the Kanto-Unova portal to not depend on the connection of my portal, hopefully it can stay connected all the time."  
He tapped his own portal "...Unlike you."  
He punched in a few controls on a panel close to the portals and disabled them. Afterwards, he got down on the ground and started disassembling the Kanto-Unova portal.

"Hey kid." a voice spoke.  
"Not now" Super Rike said without looking "I'm adjusting these portals so that they will function better."  
After a few seconds, Super Rike received a blow to the head. Upon inspection, he saw that he was hit on the head by a spanner.  
"_Ow! Jesus!"  
_He got up and looked at who threw it, really ticked off.  
Whoever it was, he liked to dress. He was the spitting image of a cowboy.  
"What the hell?!"  
"I like people to look at me when I'm talking to them."  
"Yeah, and I like people not throwing spanners on my head! Now what do you want?"  
He smiled in the most intimidatingly evil way "Take a guess who I am."  
"A egotistic party attender?"  
"Let me give you one hint."  
He shot his hand forward and Super Rike felt an invisible force taking over his body.

_This was not Pokémon._

He raised it ever so slightly and Super Rike levitated off the ground.  
Then, he flung his hand towards the mountain of Rock tunnel behind him. Super Rike's body was violently tossed over the river and the fence between them and crashed into the mountain.  
"_Oww…_ Okay, so whoever you are, you know I have superpowers." he said, recovering from the blow.  
"Here's another hint." He said.  
Super Rike braced himself, but he didn't fling him anywhere this time. When he opened his eyes, he saw his home planet. A hologram of the now deceased planet right in front of him.  
_Who could he be that he knew what planet he was from?!  
_Unless…  
"Evil Rike? You're alive?"  
"Wrong!" He shouted, and shot a blast of air from his arm. Super Rike felt the shockwave blast through his body as if it was shattering every one of his bones. The wave from the attack could be heard ricocheting off the mountains for quite some time.  
Super Rike got up again. He was in pain, but he wasn't going to be belittled.  
"One… More… Hint." He said.  
Slowly, he pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it out so Super Rike could clearly see it.

Super Rike recoiled in disbelief, covering his mouth and dropping his screwdriver. He backed away until he hit the fence behind him, his eyes beginning to water.  
_It was that knife.  
With the same blood stains as when it happened.  
It was him.  
_"You… You killed my family." Super Rike said.  
"And I'd do it all over again, just to see the look on your cute little face."  
"What do you want from me, you psycho?"  
He roared in laughter.  
"Puny human insults! I'm disappointed in you, Rich. I gave you a taste of me, and the best you've got is psycho?"  
Many thoughts raced through Super Rike's mind, most of which weren't his own.  
"_...S….Skewb…...Skewb…...Four.."  
_He got down on his knees and covered his head "_What are you doing to me!?_"  
"Oh give over!" He said, kicking him in the head.  
"I almost forgot that he could disable my superpowers." Super Rike thought, his head throbbing "Just like the time he pinned me down and used that knife to cut deep into my face."  
"Your time is nearly over, _Super_ Rike. It's time to start fighting in the god war."  
"I don't care what you do to me." He said, getting up again, with extreme effort "You can kill my family, but I'm not fighting in your damn war, I don't care what any prophecy says."  
"Oooh, big talk!" He said, walking up close to him "But answer me this boy, when I killed your precious mother, father and twins, what was the first thing you did?"  
Super Rike thought.  
"My first ambition was to create a portal to a fantasy world… To escape reality."  
"...And what were to happen if I were to ensure you can never come back here again?"  
"That's not gonna happen."  
"Oh, and why not?"  
"Because as long as I have knowledge of quantum mixing, I'll keep creating portals back to here."  
"You assume that it's the portal I'm going to destroy."  
"What are you going to destroy, then?"  
"All in good time, scarface."  
"You make me sick."  
"And you…" he said poking him. When the two of them came into contact, Super Rike experienced a sensation he had only experienced once before in his life… The day he was granted his superpowers. He was on Earth. He'd touched a mysterious compelling light. It was so painful that it by definition wasn't pain, it wasn't anything understandable to living beings besides those who had experienced it. It was so painful that the universe itself had skipped back 4 hours in time.  
Next thing he knew, he was on the ground gasping for air. He shouldn't be alive.  
"...Don't wanna make me mad sonny boy!"  
"Please… Stop…"  
"Shut it!" He yelled, blasting another wave of air at him. He couldn't take this.  
After a few minutes, he attempted to get up. He was shaking all over, partially from pain, but partially from fear. He could do anything. Super Rike was powerless to stop him.  
"I keep asking you, what do you want from me?" He eventually said.

"Super Rike!" A voice called.  
"Wait" Super Rike thought "there's only one being I know with a voice like that."  
Ty was running towards Super Rike.  
"Super Rike! Wait for me!"  
"Hey Typhlosion." Super Rike said.  
"It's just Ty" Ty corrected him.  
"Right. Sorry, Ty." He said, patting him, Ty purred.  
"Listen Super Rike, I gotta ask you something."  
"Yeah? What's that?"  
"I was wal-"  
Out of nowhere, a chain appeared around Ty's neck, the other end was dragged into the rock of the mountain.  
He was stuck there.  
"Agggh! What's happening!?" Ty said, struggling to get free from the chain.  
"_No, not Ty…" _Super Rike thought.  
"Ahem!"  
It was the cowboy again.  
Super Rike felt uncontrollable rage engulf him as he turned to look at him.  
"You know" he calmly said "You're a really sick f-"  
"Do what I say and I won't kill Ty."  
Super Rike stepped back.  
He had to.  
He didn't have time to think about it.  
He was powerless.  
"What… What is it?"  
"I want you to give this to Ethan." He said, handing Super Rike a small cube, or rather, the frame of a cube.  
"Is… That it?"  
"And!" he added, pulling Super Rike close to him "...I want you to tell him something, and please use these exact words or else your pet may not be breathing tomorrow."  
Super Rike could not believe his luck.  
"Tell him: The legends are true. The Resu trio are back."  
"Right."  
"Oh, and, I'd hurry because, time is ticking." He said, pointing to Ty.  
His chain was ever so slightly getting narrower.  
He did not have long to live if Super Rike wasn't quick.

Super Rike stepped back to confirm that he could go, then he legged it.  
"_Ty came from this direction, that means Ethan must be there somewhere."  
_He pulled out his modified iPod and dialed Ethan's number while sprinting.  
"Come on… Come on!"  
After a frustratingly long time, a click was heard.  
_"Hello? Super R-"_  
"No time to explain! I need you to tell me exactly where you are, right now!"  
_"Err, right, right, I'm err, at the entrance to the Cerulean City gym."  
_"Stay there and don't move!"  
_"Super Rike, are you all ri-"  
_Super Rike hung up.  
_Just a little further, just a little further…  
_A wild Pokémon jumped in front of him which he punched out of the way.  
"_Ethan!" _he screamed at the top of his voice, as he was bolting into Cerulean.  
He was just around the corner "Super Rike! What's the matter!?"  
"I need to tell you something!"  
He took a few seconds to catch his breath. Good god he was out of shape.  
"Listen! I have to tell you something!"  
He showed him the small black cube frame.  
"Take it, it's yours! Quickly!"  
Ethan hesitated but took it "Wait, is this a-"  
"The guy who gave it to me told me to tell you this."  
"What is it?"  
Thank god he remembered it perfectly. He was afraid he wouldn't pull that off.  
"The legends are true. The Resu trio are back."  
Ethan looked shocked. Super Rike still had no idea what it meant, but obviously he did.  
"But… But…"  
"...And I know where your Typhlosion is, but he's not safe."  
He put the cube away at once "_What?!"  
_"Fly to Route 10. He's chained to a mountainside at the end of Route 9. I'll run there to help you."  
Ethan immediately summoned Pidgeot and got on.  
"Wait! Super Rike! Take this!"  
He fumbled in his bag, and threw him some kind of heap of metal frames. He quickly realised though that he'd just thrown him his folded up bike.  
"See you there." He said, unfolding it.  
They took off.

"What was the shortest way there?" Super Rike thought.  
He thought back to when he played the games.  
"Oh jeez, I just remembered the ledges."  
Super Rike flew down on his bike to the ledge below, putting all his power into just keeping his balance.  
He squirmed his way around the oddly shaped route in top speed.  
When they got there, Super Rike carelessly threw the bike to the side.  
"_How the hell did this happen!?"  
_Things were worse, Ty was now furiously attacking the metal but it was no use, it was now so tight that he had trouble breathing.  
"_No…" _Super Rike thought "_I don't understand. He told me to tell you all that. He told me to give-"  
_Ethan interrupted him screaming "_I thought you had superpowers!"  
_"I'm sorry, Ethan. Somebody has disabled them…"  
Just then, Super Rike felt a tingling sensation. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he could only pray…  
"Ethan! Stand back!" He said, seizing the metal.  
He couldn't grab it, it was too tight.  
_Of course, Ty is a fire type, Super Rike could just smelt it.  
_He concentrated. Slowly the metal began to melt.  
Soon, he was out.  
Ty roared in pain, and fell to the ground, panting.

"I'm sorry Ty. It was all I could do. Anyway, Ethan, take him to the pokécenter. Now."  
"Err, yeah, I knew that."  
He withdrew Ty and ran towards the pokécenter.  
Super Rike sighed, and took a moment to catch his breath. He was so exhausted.  
"Oh god, that bike."  
He quickly walked over to the bike. Luckily, no damage. That's always a bonus.  
He folded it back into the way it was and made his way to the pokécenter.

Ethan was there, Ty was standing next to him.  
"Thanks so much."  
"Please come again anytime!"  
Ethan and Ty turned to face him.  
Ty had suffered nothing but a loss of fur at the neck.  
"They say the fur is the only thing he lost, and it will grow back, Typhlosion fur grows back pretty quickly."  
Thank god. _Thank god. Everyone was safe.  
_"Here's your bike."  
"Thanks, and err, thanks for saving his life. Sorry for getting snappy at you there."  
"No, it's fine, really, it's only natural."  
"Just give me a second."  
Ethan randomly hugged Ty.  
"I was so scared for a second there."  
Ty awkwardly patted him on the back.  
"It just occured to me how easy danger like this can happen. I'm so glad you're fine." He said, getting hoarse.  
Super Rike stepped back "Yeah, that's shock, and frankly I can't blame you."  
"How did it happen though?" He asked, turning to Super Rike "How did he get that way?"  
"Somebody forced me to give you that cube and tell you about the Resu trio, he's…"  
Super Rike didn't really know who he was. He was a phantom from the multiverse of the God war, intent on bending and breaking him.  
"He has superpowers like me." Super Rike finished.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, kind of. It's complicated."  
"...And he did this to Ty?"  
"...Yeah."  
"Is there any chance of him doing it again? _Is Ty safe!?_"  
"He's fine" Super Rike lied "What was going on today was between me and him."  
"So…" Ty began "So you saved my life?"  
"Yeah, I did." Super Rike said "Smelting the chain around your neck was the only way I could free you, but I kinda figured you'd be more resistant to it, seeing as you're a fire type and all that. Sorry."  
"That's okay. Thanks for saving me."

_A little while later…_

Super Rike, Ethan and Ty are sitting down on the pokécenter chairs.  
"Oh yeah" Ethan said, "Almost forgot about this."  
He took the cube frame out of his pocket.  
"Yeah" Super Rike began "What is that?"  
"This, my friend, is a stone of prevention."  
"What does it do?"  
"Nothing, under normal circumstances, but when paired with it's twin stone, it yields the power to prevent the Resu trio from causing havoc."  
"Wait, the Resu trio?"  
"The Resu trio is a trio of legendary Pokémon. For millennia they've just been a part of Pokémon mythology, but if these stones exist, maybe the trio exist."  
"...And that's what he meant by 'The Resu trio are back'?"  
"Yep. Apparently, they exist, and only these stones can put them back to sleep again."  
"But what I've heard about this trio isn't good. Maybe you need these stones. Where do you think the other one is?"  
Ethan laughed.  
"What?" Super Rike asked.  
"How do you think I came across the story of the Resu trio?"  
"Well I dunno, did you learn it at school?"  
Ethan reached into his other pocket, and pulled out an identical black cube frame.  
Super Rike's eyes widened "No way!"  
"Uh-huh. I found this a while back. It was just lying on the ground in Johto. It's what got me interested in the whole topic."  
"So you have the full power of the restraint stones?"  
"It would seem so."  
"That is amazing."  
"Well, it is thanks to you that I found the other."  
"Oh yeah."  
"Still, if these cubes are legit, and the stories are true, I'm gonna need the people that have been foretelling the night of the Resu, which means…"  
Ethan smirked "I never thought I'd have to say this… But I ought to pay the crazy people at the Celadon Condominiums a visit."  
"Right."  
Ethan but both cubes in one pocket "Super Rike, it's been nice meeting you, thanks for helping me find Ty and saving him, but I have a lot to do now, so I'll be on my way."  
"Allright. Later, Ethan. Later, Ty."  
Ty waved cheerily and followed Ethan.

After they were gone, Super Rike sat back for a second.  
"Hey, I've still gotta fix those portals."  
He got up and and made his way outside.


	4. Chapter 4

_18 July 2013_

"You can't keep me in here… You can't keep, it's not fair!"

"I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do."  
"_Liar! You're head of this institution! You're the reason I'm here!"  
_"Look, Skew, I can't let you out, you're a danger to the public."  
"_It's Skewb! Skew-B! Pronounce the B!"  
_"Maybe if you want to convince us that you're no danger, you'll start by telling me your actual name."  
"_That is my real name!"  
_"No parents would call their child Skewb."  
"_I chose that name! I have no parents! I created myself!"  
_"That's wrong, Skewp, everybody has parents, even adopted people."  
"_I'm sick of talking to you closed minded humans! Leave me alone!"  
_The physiatrist sighed.  
"Look, I'll be back soon, I'd like an answer to my questions when I get back."  
He stood up. There were more physiatrists on the other side of the door.  
"He doesn't want to answer any of my questions now. Let's come bac-"  
...That was all Skewb heard before he closed the door behind him.

It was just him.  
In this room.  
Just then, a voice spoke that only he could hear "_Well Skewb, you made your way to an asylum. Congratulations."  
_"Shut up!" Skewb shouted.  
"_Still, at least you didn't tell him that you were actually an alien who committed suicide and was then resurrected by the ghost of an ancient prince."  
_"What the hell am I going to say to them then though?"  
"_Just make up a story that sounds believable. Say you're a kid with a skin condition. Say you got bullied because of that and that you never had friends."  
_"They take this story seriously though. Let's face it, how many skin conditions are there that turn your skin dark green?"  
"_I don't know. This is your universe, not mine. It's bound to exist though."  
_"You're so useless."  
"_I don't plan on applying as a professional madhouse outbreak advisor anytime soon, no."  
_"And you know what the funny thing is?"  
"_What?"  
_"I really could not care less about this happening to me compared to what's happened in the past."  
"_Wow, you must have it almost as bad as me."  
_"I already told you, I do."  
"_At least you don't have PTSD though."  
_"Have I ever told you about what happened that made me kill myself? ...The first time that is."  
"_Something about losing a sweet wrapper?"  
_"Yeah, there's this rumour going around that nothing at all happened. I'm not stupid, I've read up on myself. If I ever find the person who spread that rumour, I swear to god…"  
"_What did happen then?"  
_Skewb sighed.

"Well it started when my parents died, and while I was searching for their home planet, my 2 other brothers died here on Earth. With no family left and nobody to turn to, I decided to do the only thing I could do to keep me sane."  
"_Which was?"  
_"I created a universe that looked identical to the universe in the Pokémon video game series."  
"_Didn't you do that after I found you as well?"  
_"Yes, but this was different. The other universe I made was an escape, an alternative to reality. Somewhere I could be where I wanted to be, where I had friends and we communicated. On top of that I got to walk, play and fight with all my favourite Pokémon from the games, they had them all, they had a collection of over 400 different types spanning at least 5 different regions, 6 years and god knows how many trainers."  
"_They must be dedicated people."  
_"In fact their collection was so large that it spanned more than just one planet, it spanned multiple universes, some of my friends being friends with alternate versions of themselves."  
"_They were friends with themselves?"  
_"Some of the people were identical, yeah."  
"_Wow, the ideal world for you. A world where you can have clones of yourself as friends."  
_"Well, obviously I was one of a kind cause I wasn't from their multiverse."  
_"So what happened?"  
_"They died. Every single one of them."  
_"How did they manage to do that?"  
_"Well, after reading up on the leftover data from the accident, I found that their entire multiverse had been wiped out by a Pokémon called Morta."  
_"Never heard of it."  
_"Me neither, but it was the strongest of a legendary Pokémon trio. At the time I didn't understand, because one of my friends, Ethan, was supposed to have the stones to prevent Morta from waking up."  
_"Soooooo...?"  
_"As it turns out, those items were actually supposed to help spawn them. Ethan was spawning them, not preventing them from spawning, and somebody had been lying to him all his life."  
_"That sucks."  
_"Those guys were everything I needed in my life. When I lost them, I lost everything. No friends, no family, no support, no escape. I had nothing left..."  
Skewb breathed in.  
"...And when I realised that, that's when I did it. That when I committed suicide. That's when my life was over. Still is if you ask me. I feel just as much pain now as I did then."  
_"But just as you died, that's when Prince Skew reanimated you."  
_"Yep, and that's how I began as Skewb. A suicidal yet immortal zombie."  
_"Did you turn green immediately?"  
_"No, I woke up less than a few seconds after the old me hit the ground and died, and I still looked exactly like him, but because my body still thought it was dead it started decomposing, and after about a week I was completely dark green."  
_"I thought it was microorganisms that made you decompose."  
_"Then it was them that thought I was dead. I don't know. Point is, I was theoretically dead."  
_"You know I just had this thought."  
_"Do you want a medal?"  
_"You probably shouldn't be talking to me."  
_"Why not?"  
_"Duh, because I'm invisible? They can't see or hear me so they're just gonna think that they're talking to yourself."  
_Skewb thought about this.  
"You're right. I'll shut up from now on."

Before he had time to shut up though, the door opened again.  
"Who's that you're talking to?"  
"Myself. It's a habit I have. Doesn't matter, seeing as I live in a madhouse anyway."  
He looked at Skewb with doubt on his face, disregarded it, closing the door and sitting down next to him.  
"Now Skewb, I'm going to ask you a few questions, I want you to answer them properly this time."

_25 December 2011_

"This was such a good idea."  
The 7 good friends were sitting around in Touya's house. Ty, Super Rike's Latios, Touko's Samurott, White Bianca's Samurott, Red's Pikachu, and White Cheren's Emboar were playing outside. Touya's Serperior chose to stay indoors though. All the parents were there and just casually chatting about things.  
"So why did your Cheren not come, Touko?" Someone asked.  
"Oh, he said he already had plans spending Christmas with others. That's okay though, he's generally been busy with other things since I found this universe. We just kind of do our own things now."

Super Rike looked over to Ethan, he was showing somebody one of the cubes and telling them all about it.  
"He's busy talking" Super Rike thought "I'm not going to bother him."  
"You keep looking over to him." Touya said.  
"Yeah, I'm just thinking about what he told me."  
"Aren't those cubes supposed to prevent this Pokémon from causing destruction or something?"  
"Well, it's apparently supposed to prevent a Pokémon called Resu being awoken… But it's what he told me a few days later that's intriguing me."  
"What's that?"  
"Well he told all this to the Game Freak in Celadon and they told him to give the cubes to somebody called Hilda."  
"Who's that?"  
"Ethan doesn't know either. Nobody knows. He figured he'd find this Hilda on his own but I can tell by his face that he's reconsidering that. This whole situation is becoming less and less of a myth and more and more of a problem, and I think it's time we treated it seriously."  
"Yeah, I suppose the last thing we want is our universe ending, but even still, could it just be that the stones he has are just made from the stories and that this Hilda doesn't actually exist?"  
"I think that's why it's taking so long for Ethan to talk to us about it, he just doesn't believe in it all."  
He looked over to Touya.  
"Touya, I need to ask you a favour."  
"Sure. What's that?"  
"I want you to aid his search. I want us to find this Hilda so we can ask her what's going on and give her the stones she needs to prevent the end from happening."  
"I can search with you, yeah, sure."  
"Thanks."  
"No problem."

Touya went to see how Touko was doing. She was having a friendly conversation with White Cheren.  
It occurred to him. She's getting along with him better than she's getting along with Black Cheren. It must be because of her losing Black Bianca. Touya never knew his friendship between the 3 of them depended so strongly on Bianca. Would the same happen to him if he were to lose his Bianca? But him and Cheren were such good friends. He just didn't see it happening.  
Suddenly she stopped talking with Cheren. Touya didn't know why.  
Then he clearly heard her say to Cheren "Please excuse me a minute."  
Then she came walking over to him.  
Oh god.  
She sat down next to him.  
"I was just talking with Cheren and I heard him mention the N from this universe..."  
"Right..." Touya said.  
"...and he told me that you were the only person we know that has direct contact with him."  
"...Yyyyyyyyyyeah..."  
"Did you tell him about my universe?"  
Touya blinked. Should he lie?  
No. He was going to be completely honest about this.  
"...Yes. Yes I did."  
Touko looked at him. He knew he was in trouble.  
"I can't believe it..." She said.  
"Why, did, err...?"  
"Out of all the people in the entire universe, you were the only person who could actually help me."  
Help... Her? Okay? I guess that's good?  
"S-seriously?" He said.  
Touko took his hand and held it closer to her "Thanks to you, my N was broken out of captivity. Thanks to you we finally have a chance of defeating Plasma. Seriously. I cannot thank you enough."  
Touya blushed "Well, you looked like you needed the help."  
He could tell by the look on Touko's face that she knew at that point exactly what motivated him to tell N about her universe.  
Then, she hugged him tightly. Touya hesitated, then did the same.  
_"I'm not gonna tear up" _she thought _"I'm not gonna tear up."  
_  
"So, your N is free now, is that a big deal?" He asked.  
"Oh yeah!" She said, letting go "After your N freed my N, they teamed up and now their studying how to wake an ancient legendary Pokémon trio to help fight Plasma. They even have one now!"  
"Wait, really?! What's it called?"  
"Well, I forget its name, but it's one of the Resu trio."  
One of the...  
Touya leaned back in total disbelief.  
"Are you okay?" Touko asked  
"Touko… Do you happen to know somebody called Hilda?"  
Touko simply stared at him.  
"...Nnnnnnooooooooo." She slowly said "Why do you ask?"  
"Well, it's just that Ethan found these two artifacts and apparently somebody called Hilda needs them to prevent the Resu trio from awakening and destroying every known universe."  
"What?!"  
"That's just what Super Rike told me."  
"You're seriously gonna believe everything that kid says?"  
"Well everything he told us so far was true."  
Touko looked at Ethan "We seriously need to speak to him then."

Touko got up and Touya did the same.  
"Hey Ethan…" she called out.  
Ethan didn't seem to react for a second, but then he looked over to Touko and pointed to himself.  
"Yeah." She replied "Do you have a moment?"  
"Yeah, sure." Ethan said, and walked over.  
"Sorry, but, there's something we need to talk about."  
"What's that?"  
"Super Rike told us about something that I was hoping you could help us with."  
"Right…"  
"He says you have something related to the legends of Resu."  
"Aha" Ethan thought "Yeah, I really should have brought that up sooner."  
"I do, actually." He said, and reached in his pocket for the two cubes.  
"Do you know what they are?" Touko asked.  
"Well according to my research, these two artifacts when brought together yield the power to control the rage of the Resu trio. They say when all 3 of the Resu trio are loose, there's nothing stopping them from ending reality, except for these things."  
"...And you were told to give them to somebody?"  
"I asked experts on the Resu legends and they told me to give it to somebody named Hilda."  
"Let me guess, you've been looking for her but you just can't find her."  
"Well, yeah. Exactly that. I was gonna ask you guys but I never got around to it."  
"I think you should give them to me. I'm probably the person here who is the most likely to find this Hilda."  
"Why is that?"  
"Not long ago, in my universe, my N was captured, until recently your N broke him out. Now the both of them are looking for a way to wake the Resu Pokémon, and in fact, we already have one."  
"Oh wow."  
"What I don't understand is we explicitly said that we were only going to wake two of the three to prevent the overflow of power and likely the destruction of reality."  
"Maybe it has to do with Hilda." Touya suggested "Maybe she wants to try and wake the third one."  
After a second Touko said "Well, that's the best theory we have so far."  
"Allright." Ethan said, handing them over to her "Do what you have to do. If I'm the one to find Hilda, I'll tell you, okay?"  
"Sounds good." Touko said "Listen, you guys, I have to be somewhere now, see you guys later."  
"Later!" They said cheerfully, and she went back to talking with Cheren.

_10 January 2012_

Touya, Touko and Touko's N are getting ready to venture on beyond White Unova to find the 4th of the 6 Resu stones.  
"Now we have the tent ready." N said, dusting his hands.  
"Allright." Touko said with enthusiasm "We're officially camping. Finally! God knows I've waited so long to do this. I couldn't in my old universe you see, couldn't make it anywhere outside of Unova."  
"So what next?" Touya asked.  
"Let's make a fire." N suggested  
"Good idea. A BBQ tonight!" Touko said.  
"Yeah. Hah." Touya added.  
By this point they had found the 3rd Resu stone, which looked like a framed Tetrahedron. They were now looking for the 4th stone which would awaken the 2nd Resu Pokémon called Sira. With the first 4 stones they were going to summon Sira and Axia together and with them fight the war against Plasma.

The next morning Touko was the first to get up.  
"Goooooood morning."  
"Mornin'" Touya said sleepily  
"Hey, I just thought," She said "Let's go to the nearby village today. Maybe we can learn about the location of the 4th stone."  
"Ok, good idea." Touya said, without really thinking about it.  
"Seems like a nice place." Touya remarked, looking around at his surroundings "You really don't come across villages outside of Unova much do you? It's all cities and stuff."  
A voice called them "Hey, you."  
Touko stopped "Me?"  
"Yeah, you. Come here."  
"Why?"  
"Just come here."  
Touko looks at the others with a complete lack of trust for this stranger. Slowly and carefully, she walks to the man.  
"Who are you? You don't live here." He asked.  
"No" Touko answered "I'm camping in the forest with my friends."  
"Oh, a tourist?"  
"Yeah, sort of. We're just looking for an ancient treasure. What's it to you?"  
"You don't happen to be looking for the stone of Rust Alt are you?"  
N chipped in "The 4th Resu stone? Actually, yes we are. Do you know about it?"  
"That thing is guarded by this village, or so they say."  
"Go on…" N said.  
"It's said to lie in the mountain temple, not far from here. Often this place is guarded by the villagers here to maintain its history, but there are ways to get in."  
"…And do you know this way in?"  
"Yeah. Here, a map."  
They looked on the map. It showed a rocky hill with a temple on top. Going towards it was one winding path, and the rest was surrounded with forest. Somewhere along the edge of the map lay the village.  
"They guard the entrance to the temple, but for a short time at 4AM, the actual entrance isn't watched due to shifts. It's tricky, you have to be quick, quiet and stay out of sight, but it is very possible."  
"Ok," Touko said "thanks for the tip."

They walked back to their tent.

"Allright" Touko said. "That was easy enough. The not so easy part is getting in."  
"So, 4AM tomorrow morning, what are we gonna do?" Touko asked.  
"I have a plan" Touya said "This evening I'm going to the nearest Pokémon centre and withdrawing my Kecleon. I can use him to keep an eye on the guards. When they leave, it can let me know and then we can sneak in."  
"But how do we get out?" Touko asked.  
"I'm glad you asked" Touya said "N won't actually be going inside. He'll stay outside away from view. We can contact him with the Xtransceiver. When we have the treasure, well, that's when things get complicated."  
"I hope you know what you're doing…" Touko said.  
"N has the Resu Pokémon Axia with him. We're gonna use that Pokémon to distract the guards. Now, we have to give them a good reason to distract them, so Axia is gonna have to do some damage. Doesn't have to be massive, but enough to get us out without them noticing. Knowing the guards, they will recognise that Pokémon as one of the Resu trio which means they have a better reason to be distracted. When we escape, we will go back to N to meet up again and then we leg it."  
"Hmm. Complex, but if it works, it works." Touko said.

Touko was lying in bed looking at the map that night "You know I've been thinking."  
"Have you? Oh well done." Touya said jokingly.  
"I mean, you know that map we got?"  
"Yes?"  
"Do you think it's safe to go there?"  
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"  
"Well, maybe whoever gave you that map is trying to lure us into a trap or something."  
"Why would he want to do that?"  
"Well maybe he, I dunno…"  
"You're too paranoid. I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be fine."  
"Yeah. Maybe. I guess I'm just used to thinking that way what with my whole situation with Plasma."  
"Yeah, you worry too much. Really."  
Touko thought. This was the safe universe.  
"Maybe I do." She said.  
"Well I'm going to sleep. Try not to dream of Snorlax eating you or something."  
"Why Snorlax?"  
"No idea. It was the first thing that popped into my head."  
"Heh."

That night…

Touya heard Touko's voice "Yo, Touya…"  
"Whazzafrazza…"  
"Hey Touya, could you let me in?"  
"Touko?"  
"Yeah, it's me. Let me in."  
"What are you doing outside?"  
"I needed a change of view, also some fresh air."  
Touya just laughed "You know, you're really weird."  
"Yeah well, I'm like that, but please let me in now, it may be be Spring, but it hasn't been Spring for that long."  
"Okay, hang on" he said, unzipping the tent.  
"Thanks." She said rubbing her arms to warm her up. She sat down "Is N up?"  
"No." Touya said, checking his Xtransceiver. It read 2:00. They had 2 hours. "Should I get him up, you think?"  
Touko nodded.

They went to get N up.  
"Awwwwww…" N said "I'm not used to this."  
"Hmm" Touya said "Well, we have 2 hours to prepare. Don't sleep for too long."  
"No, I'll get up." He said, clumsily sitting up.  
"I've got my Kecleon. Do you have your Axia?""Uh-huh." N said.  
"Good. Now, let's make our way there and see what we can do."

Just then, all 3 of their Xtransceivers went off at the exact same time.  
"_What is going on?" _Touko asked, horrified.  
"I don't know…" Touya said.  
"Should we take it?" N asked.  
Touya thought. Should they?  
"Well, I'm going to." Touya said, and picked it up. It was from an unknown contact.  
Nothing but soft static.  
The other two did the same. They also got static.  
"Hello?" Touya said.  
A clicking noise was heard. Shortly afterwards came the shouts from someone. His voice sounded familiar, but where was it from?  
"_...Ow…...St…..Res….A…!"  
_He had no idea what he was saying. Was it because he was out of range?  
Just then, he heard something even more disturbing. Another voice, this time not familiar, and very clear.  
"_End."  
_The caller hung up.  
Touya looked at his Xtransceiver.  
"D-did you two get the same call?" He asked, too shocked for words.  
He could tell by their voices that they did as well "Yeeah."

Then, after a moment of extremely unpleasant silence, Touko spoke "I'm calling Super Rike."  
"Why?" Touya asked.  
"Didn't you recognise the first voice?"  
Of course. That first voice was Super Rike.  
"Hello?" Touko said.  
Super Rike's voice was perfectly clear.  
"_Oh hey Touko. What's up?"  
_"There's something I need to ask you."  
"_You sound worried. Is something the matter?"  
_"Well, did you just try to call me?"  
A short pause.  
"_No."  
_"Then something is the matter."  
His voice fell serious.  
"_What happened?"  
_"Well, me, Touko and N are here. We just got up and we were all called at the exact same time by the exact same person. The voice was hard to understand, but it sounded like you."  
There was another pause.  
"_Was there anything he said that you did understand?"  
_"No."  
"_Was there anything else other than my voice?"  
_"Yeah. Just before they hung up, somebody said 'End'."  
"_...Right. I'll take a look at that. I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I know."  
_"Thanks."  
"_Another thing, what were you guys doing up so late at night anyway? I mean it's day here in Kanto but isn't it like 1:00 where you are or something?"  
_"Err, there are err, things... That we need to get done, is all."  
"_Hm, okay, well I won't hold you any longer."  
_"Okay, bye Super Rike."  
"_Bye…"  
_He hung up.  
Touko looked at them "He said it wasn't him."

_20 minutes later…_

The 3 are making their way through the forest.  
"Man" Touya said. They were sure to stay quiet so nobody else would hear them "You can really hear the frogs out here at this time, can't you?"  
"Look up to the sky." Touko said.  
They looked up. The night sky was pretty fabulous. Without overcast and light pollution, you could see the starry points really easily.  
"Wow. If only it was like that in Unova." Touya said.  
"Okay." N said "According to the map we have to go…"  
N turns to the direction of the temple.  
"...That way."  
"You sure about that?" Touko asked.  
"Nope. Let's go."  
They venture on through the forest while avoiding wild Pokémon. After another 30 minutes they see something in the distance.  
Touya pointed "There it is."  
Standing on a not so faraway hill they could see the mountain temple.  
"It looks very old, is it safe?" Touko asked.  
"I think is is."  
"Hmm..."  
"Now, before we approach this thing, lets wait until it's nearly 4:00. Let's stay here for now. They won't find us here. I have a timer so we can tell when it's time to take action."  
"Won't that be loud?"  
"Nah, you can adjust the volume. I tested it before we got here."  
They went to sit down on whatever they could sit down on.  
"I'm hungry." N said.  
"That's okay. I've prepared for that." Touko replied, searching in her bag.

After some waiting, it was time. They took their chance and advanced around and behind the temple. Silently Touya brought out Kecleon.  
"Listen…" He whispered to it "I want you to become invisible and climb to the top of this temple. There will be two people at the entrance. When they leave, come back to us, okay?"  
Kecleon nodded and turned invisible. The leftover red stripe was seen using the easiest way to climb up the temple.  
"Do you think they will see the stripe?" Touko whispered to Touya.  
"Nah, Kecleons are smart. They hide in ways so that nobody sees the stripes."  
They waited.  
The longer they waited, the more doubt they had.  
"Do you think they're still there?" Touko whispered.  
"Well, I'm going to assume they didn't leave yet."  
"Wait" N whispered "I see something over there."  
Squinting, they could see something approaching them.  
Giving them more time to watch it come towards them, they found that it was a floating red stripe.  
"There he is."  
"Good job, Kecleon." Touya said, retreating him to his pokéball.  
"Let's go, quickly." Touko said "See you later, N."  
He saluted them with two fingers.

They made their move, being sure to make no noise and being on the lookout for people. They were still unspotted when they came to the temple entrance. Touko was nervous, Touya had such a fast heartbeat that it was almost distracting. Without hesitating, they hurried inside.  
It was a corridor, followed by a larger room. It was old, but pretty. The only visible way out of the room besides the way they just came through was a staircase in the middle going downwards.  
They didn't have time to sightsee though. They were on a mission.  
As they headed downwards, the place got darker.  
"Darkness, yay." Touko said sarcastically.  
Touya started squinting "Aren't there any torches here we can light?"  
There was a moment silence.  
"Erm… I don't think we can progress like this" Touya said.  
They look at each other.  
"Well we can't go back now. This is the only time we can do this." Touko pointed out.  
"Okay" Touya said "No worries. We'll... Er…"  
A voice interrupted them "Need help?"

They look behind them. It was the stranger that gave them the map.  
"Is this a trap!?" Touya asked.  
"No, no, don't worry. I'll explain everything. You see, it all started about a year ago, when I moved into the village I live in now. One thing I'd noticed about the villagers right away was their fascination with what appeared to be a myth. This always interested me, because I knew of no other people who felt the same way about the Resu legends. After a while, I got to learn about it more and I noticed that them being a myth may not have been a crazy idea as it seemed. I wanted to prove their existence. I learned that although some stones had been found like the one they put here, some could lie anywhere in the universe. Some could even lie in other universes. I looked to see if it were possible to find these universes to track down the stones, but I didn't have enough information about that… Until one day."  
"Let me guess..." Touya said "Parallel Day."  
"Exactly." The stranger said "8 July 2011. The day the world first made contact with a parallel universe."  
"But how did you know that there were stones in that universe?"  
"It's part of the myth. They predicted that we'd find a way to connect to parallel universes. They also said that the first universe we'd find contained the lost stones."  
"Wow, they predicted a lot."  
"Yes, we still don't know how they knew so much, but I was determined to find stones 3 and 4, the Sira stones, and what better stone to start than with the one at the village?"  
"So you've been waiting for someone to come and help you?"  
"I decided to settle down and wait for the next people looking for the stone so we could search together."  
"You waited half a year for this?"  
"Yeah. So? It's not a life goal or anything, I just wanna know if the Resu legends are true. I'm in no hurry."  
Touya nodded his head to the side "Fair enough."  
"Waaait a second." Touko butted in "Why didn't you just tell all of this to us at the village?"  
"Well I needed to know if you were the right people to help me. I got here via a secret teleport I made connecting to my basement. That's how I got here. But I needed to test you, if you could get past the guards, then you have a good chance of finding the stone."  
Touko rolled her eyes "Typical."  
"If you like though, I can get you out of here via the teleport."  
"Oooh, good." Touya said "That will save us a lot of trouble."

He got out his Xtransceiver and dialed N's number.

"_Is that you, Touya? Is it time?"  
_"No, no no! Listen, change of plans, there's someone who can get us out of here. Forget the whole Pokémon thing."  
"_Oh, err, right."  
_"Just stay there, we'll be with you as soon as we can, and stay out of sight!"  
"_Roger, Touya."  
_"Good. See you soon." He said, hanging up.  
"Anyway" the stranger said afterwards "we should probably be getting a move on, the longer we stay here, the more likely we are to get caught."  
"We don't have a light, we assumed this place would be lit." Touya said.  
The stranger tossed a flashlight a short distance into the air and caught it again with his right hand "Not a problem."  
"Ah, great, thanks." Touya said, as he was given the light.  
"Don't mention it. Anyway, let's go, quick."  
Touya turned the light on and they progressed further.

"Call me Gino, by the way." The stranger said.  
Deep inside the temple, they started seeing ancient drawings on the walls. They kept an eye out for surprises.  
"Be sure to be on the lookout." Gino told them "You never know what might launch at you when you least expect it."  
"That means Unowns" Touya said.  
"And Woobats." Touko added.  
They open a portal activated door to a new room. In this room, are loads of wild Pokémon.  
"Finally! A challenge!" Touko says, getting her pokéball.  
A few moments ensued as the 3 battled against the Pokémon. After a while, the remaining Pokémon flee from the room.  
"Everyone all right?" Touko asks.  
"Never better." Touya replies.  
"I'm fine, thanks." Gino says.  
"Hey look!" Touko says, pointing to the wall behind them. Gino and Ben turned to see what was going on. The sand was now falling, and soon it was gone, leaving a path to the next area.  
"_Let me outta here."  
_"Woah! What was that?" Touko asks.  
"Could it be...?" Gino says.

They make their way forwards, and they can see a short pillar, on top of it, the 4th Resu stone, the Rust Alt stone lay.

"_Guys, lemme out. I won't harm, honest.  
_The 3 stood there in awe.  
"Where's that voice coming from?" Touko asked.  
"That…" Gino said "...Is Sira. The 2nd Resu giant. Supposedly it's been asking that ever since the two stones were separated."  
"Allright! Let's not waste any more time!" Touya said.  
He ran up to the stone, but hesitated to pick it up.  
"Wait" he said "This is too easy… There has to be some kind of defense somewhere. It's just lying here."  
"What, were you expecting this to be harder?" Touko asked "Come on! We can't take all day!"  
"Hmm, you're right." Touya said, reaching for the stone.  
He couldn't. There was some kind of force holding him back, like if his hand was metal and the stone was an extremely heavy magnet.  
"What is it?" Touko asked.  
"Oh god, I should have known about this." Gino said.  
They both looked at Gino.  
"The villagers placed the stone here, but this temple is a lot older than that, and it possesses unusual magic powers. They must have found a way to repel intruders from stealing the stone."  
"Damn…" Touya said.  
"I don't know what to do, I'm sorry." Gino said.  
"Wait…" Touko said "There's one thing I can try, although I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this."  
"What's that?" Gino asked.  
Touko approached the stone laying on the pillar and took the 3rd stone out of her pocket. She held it above the force field surrounding the 4th stone. There was a clicking noise.  
"Try it now, Touya"  
Touya went for the stone. It was possible.  
Gino's eyes opened wide "_What is that!?"  
_"Sorry Gino…" Touko said "I lied to you. We already possess 3 of the stones. We need 2 of the 3 Resu Pokémon to save the Unova region in the other universe."  
Gino continued staring, he then crossed his arms "You could have just told me, you know."  
"We could have…" Touko said, "I guess we just don't trust you enough, sorry."  
"Well, can I come with you? I want to see the Resu trio for the first time, or at least 2 of them."  
Touya and Touko looked at each other.  
"I… Suppose so." Touko said.  
A low rumbling noise starts. The 3 pair up again. The pillar starts shaking, and all of a sudden, smoke comes out of nowhere.  
"Let's get out of here!" Gino said.

They dash out again. Back at the main room of the temple, Gino starts running a completely different direction.  
"This way!" He said.  
They start to follow him. Hidden behind pillars was another more discrete way down.  
"This is where the teleport is, it leads to a nearby tunnel."  
They enter a room with a white mat on the floor with a blue circle on it. Gino steps on it and fades into the air.  
"Well" Touya tells Touko "Let's go."  
On the other side, the 3 emerge at the end a very narrow tunnel.  
"What is this?" Touko asks.  
"I made this tunnel myself. Teleport technology is only short range, so I had to make this stretching to just underneath the temple. Took a long time."  
"I could imagine." Touya said.

After a while of walking, they arrived at Gino's basement.  
"Well thanks for the help, Gino" Touya said "I'd stay, but we've still got to get N who's still at the temple."  
Touko quickly added "Before we go though, shall we swap numbers so I can tell you when we plan on using our Pokémon?"  
This caught Touya by surprise, Touko was so cautious up until now.  
"Oh yeah, sure." Gino said, exchanging numbers.  
"Thanks." Touko said "Well, we better get going. See you around!"  
"Good luck." Gino said.  
Touya just stood there awkwardly for a second before turning and catching up with Touko. Once the two of them a certain distance from Gino's house, he turned to Touko.  
"You were awfully eager to give him your number."  
"I know…" She said "But I had this feeling this guy had something to do with Hilda."  
"Why didn't you ask him?"  
"Because imagine if he did know of somebody called Hilda… That would have been extremely suspicious, three strangers who turn up with the same interests as him just happen to know his wife or whatever's name?"  
"I suppose, but why is Hilda so important anyway?"  
"I don't want to miss the chance to meet her. Remember, every single universe is in danger here, and she probably knows things about the Resu legends that we don't."  
"I thought the universe was fine just as long as we only woke 2 of the Resu Pokémon."  
"Would you risk it?"  
Touya thought about that for a second.  
"Good point…" He said.  
The two made their way to the place at the temple that N was.

20 minutes later, they had found the path they were taking when they were first walking towards the temple. When they got there, N was sitting and leaning against the temple, his hat sticking up in a weird position. He was asleep.  
"Wow…" Touya whispered "It's amazing nobody found him."

_31 July 2013_

He stood back and dropped the knife.  
"I can't believe I had to do this." He thought "I can't believe that I ever would."  
A voice spoke to him.  
"_Run. Just run!"  
_He nodded and made it out of the room and as far away from that place on Earth as he could. He didn't know where on Earth he was, he didn't care. He just prayed that nobody would ever find out.

While Skewb was running, the memories came flooding back to him. They tried to convince him that the voice that was speaking to him didn't exist. They reached out for the area he had his eyes on and that's when everything went horribly wrong. They poked his Espurr with their hand. The Espurr he had found in his human universe that he made invisible to avoid controversy. They found out that the voice that spoke to them was real. They took the Espurr to have tests done on it. There was nothing else he could do. He couldn't let the news spread.  
"Oh god…" He said "What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?"  
"_There's nothing you can do." _Espurr said "_The damage is done."  
The damage is done… _There were no four words Skewb hated more than those four. That's exactly what he was told the day he learned his parents were dead… As a result of Skewb, then known as Super Rike's ignorant refusal to fight in the God war.  
"Oh god…" Skewb repeated "I am in so much trouble. I have nowhere to go and soon everyone is gonna start looking for me."  
"_Well look, you've been in more stressful situations before, haven't you?"  
_"Not really."  
"_Of course you have. Now think about it, what can you do? Don't you usually have some kind of teleport ready? You're brilliant with teleports."  
_"If I had a teleport, don't you think I would use it? No. Portable teleports that work anywhere is just science fiction, the only teleports I have are portals, and those points are fixed."  
"_No they're not. The Earth moves doesn't it?"  
_"It's not that simple. Nature does not have a preference on what's moving and what isn't. The point of the portals is that they geometrically have a fixed vantage point, something portable technology can't have."  
"_Allright, scratch that. How about other technology?"  
_"Anything I had with me was confiscated when I was committed. I come prepared yeah, my stuff only works with me. I'm not stupid. The problem is I don't know where it is."  
"_Well what else do you have?"  
_"What, my immortality?"  
"_Well it's a start. Maybe you could hide somewhere that would kill a normal person, like underwater."  
_"You have no idea how uncomfortable that is, do you? That doesn't change when you're immortal you know. I still need to breathe, I just don't die if I don't, but the pain gets worse and worse."  
"_Hey, you can bring people back from the dead can't you? Maybe you could at least do that with them."  
_Skewb stopped for a few seconds before continuing.  
"Yeah, but without their memories. They become zombies. What's the point of that?"  
"_Does it matter? People will just say they got amnesia or something."  
_"But it's too late. I'm far from that place now, people will have found them by now."  
"_Allright, lemme think…"  
_Skewb continued walking.  
He really didn't know how he was gonna get out of this one.

_2 days later._

Skewb went to sit down on a park bench. His hair now covered his entire face, so that nobody knew it was him.  
"I know you're too tired and thirsty to speak right now, and you don't have to… But I'm sorry I had to bring you into this."  
No response, not even for Skewb.  
"I'll find a way out. I always do."  
Skewb sighed and took Espurr of his back. He was pretty heavy for something to have hanging on you all the time, but Skewb managed. He put him on his lap, he didn't care how daft he looked, holding air in front of him. He was so stressed out that he couldn't be bothered to worry about that at the moment.

"Excuse me sir…" He heard behind him.  
"Oh for god sake." Skewb thought.  
He turned around to ask him what he wanted.  
It was Prince Skew.  
He pushed Espurr off his lap and stood up "How did you get here!?"  
"Not bad huh, for someone from the 17th century?"  
"But, but _how!?_"  
"I think you're forgetting that you're still connected to your base. Wherever it is, it can find you."  
"But you still shouldn't have been able to get here. Everything I own there only responds to me."  
"I think you're forgetting that technically we count as the same person. Didn't you say I merged with Super Rike to make you?"  
"Well yeah, but how did you get here? There's no teleport I made that does that is there?"  
"I did have to reprogram your inter-multiversal portal a little for it to make a new portal in your vicinity."  
"Dude, that's extremely dangerous."  
"Best come quickly then, so I can turn it off before something happens."  
Skewb sighed, looked around. One kid with hair in front of his face and mittens on in the middle of summer and a semi-medieval guy next to eachother. They were going on someones twitter that night.  
"Let's just go." Skewb said.

The three of them approached the portal. It didn't have a frame, it was just a huge wall of electricity, nobody in their right mind would go through it.  
"Thanks for saving me." Skewb said.  
"Anytimes." Skew said.  
"It's Anytime, not Anytimes."  
"Ah yes, of course, I'm still getting used to 2013 talk."  
They jumped into the wall of electricity. Shortly afterwards, it shrunk until it was out of existence.

_19 January 2012_

Super Rike and Ethan were at the Pokéathlon Dome.  
Super Rike looked at awe at the events. There were good times to be had.  
"You know…" He told Ethan "I never thought I'd become this involved in a sport."  
"Me neither." Ethan said "I was never a huge Pokéathlon fan but this is pretty amazing."

Him, Ethan and Ty were walking out after it all.  
"I don't know…" Ty said. "By the sprint-jumping I was no good, and by the flag game I was just lousy."  
"Listen Ty" Ethan said "This is the first time you've ever done this. You're a level 100 Pokémon, you're used to battling your whole life. I've seen beginners here that were much worse. Trust me, you did great."  
"Aww, thanks." Ty said, blushing.  
"You know, I think next time I might give Latios a try at this, that is, if they're qualified Pokémon, it looks like fun."  
"Nice, I might try other Pokémon too."  
"But for now, I really have to get back to my world" He said, sending out Latios and getting on him.  
"So, same time next week?" Ethan asked.  
"You got it. Later!" Super Rike said, taking off.

_Same time next week?  
_"That's the last thing any of them ever said to me."


	5. Chapter 5

_21 January 2014_

_"Two… Years…"  
_Skewb was back at the graveyard staring at the half of the gravestone. He fell to his knees.  
"_I can't keep doing this…"  
_"_Somebody help me!" _He screamed.  
He got up and started kicking the gravestone, screaming the entire time.  
"_I… Hate… You… Morta!"  
_He fell down again and started tearing out huge amounts of his hair at once.  
It's pointless trying to describe the emotions that were racing through him at that point, as they cannot be conveyed into words.  
He started laughing maniacally.  
"_I swear to god, I am going to make a gravestone for every Pokémon they had on that day! I don't care how long it takes me!"  
_He started screaming again, clutching his heart. His throat was begging for mercy, but he didn't give in.

_20 January 2012_

Super Rike was at his base.  
"Ugh. The portal isn't working… Again. Typical. Well, I guess it happens. It should start working again in about two weeks, that means I've gotta spend that time here, which is annoying."  
He sits down on his bed.  
"I'm tired…" He said "I should probably get sleep soon."

_3 hours prior…_

"Allright, let's make this happen!"  
Touko, both Ns, Gino and Touya were getting ready to summon Resu giant #2.  
"Yeah!" They enthusiastically replied.  
There was a thunderstorm happening. That was the key. When together, 2 matching Resu stones had magnificent electricity conducting powers, and lightning was the perfect wake up call.  
Touko and her N brought the stones together and put them down on the grass, and then hurried out of the way before they got struck.  
"Now remember" Touko said "If something goes wrong, we have the prevention stones."  
They waited, just a little longer…  
Eventually a lightning bolt came down on the stones and a massive crashing sound blew them all several meters backwards. When they opened their eyes, a whooshing roaring sound was heard. None of them could quite believe that it was a natural sound. It didn't sound like any Pokémon cry. The sheer power in the audio gave them chills.  
"Is everyone okay!?" Touko shouted over the noise.  
"We're good!" They responded.  
"...But there's something else I think we should worry about!" Touya added, pointing to the space above where the two stones lay.  
Towering over all of Unova were not one, but two figures.  
Morta was spawning along with Sira.  
"_No… No no no no!" _Touko said, panicking.  
"Quick! Get the prevention stones!" Touko's N said.  
Him and Touko hurried to where the stones were.  
"Please god make this work." Touko pleaded under her breath.  
They took the prevention stones out of their pockets and placed it as close to the other stones as they could.

They could hear a sound. A human's sound.  
They all looked over. Someone was screaming at them, telling them to stop.  
"Wait…" Touya said "...Is that…?"  
Professor Juniper came into sight.  
"_Please! Stop! You don't understand!"  
_Another blast sent them all backwards again. Above Unova, nothing changed, Morta was still spawning. The storm in the sky got worse.  
"No…" Juniper muttered.  
"Professor Juniper…?"  
"_No! Noooo! It can't end like this!"  
_Touya and Touko were truly scared. They never imagined Juniper freaking out like this. They knew they did something wrong, seriously wrong.  
"What? _What is it!?_"  
"_Elm was wrong! Ethan was wrong! There are no prevention stones, those stones are the stones that wake Morta up!"  
_Everybody looked at each other. They quickly hurried at the stones to separate them, but it was too late. They couldn't touch them without getting blasted back.  
"_You can't! There's nothing you can do! Your only hope is your Pokémon!"  
_"Everybody stand up!" Touko shouted. They did so.  
"Allright! Here's what we're gonna do. Everybody send out all your Pokémon at once! We're going to use their collective power against Morta!"  
They sent out their Pokémon. N sent out Axia.  
"Excellent! Now, after I count down, command your Pokémon to use your most powerful move against it! Are you ready!"  
"Yeah!"  
"_3… 2… 1… Go!"  
_The air exploded with beams, attacks and a hell of a lot of noise. They felt a faint vibration under their feet. Everyone ducked to avoid being pulverized by the hell above them.  
The attacks wore out.  
Morta didn't even have a scratch. It didn't even lose 1 HP.  
"_What the hell…?"  
_It raised one arm.

_Crack!_

Every single one of their Pokémon fainted on the spot at the exact same instant.  
Tears welled up inside Touko's eyes "_I… I don't understand…"  
_"There's only one thing we can-"  
Everyones phone went off at once.  
"Excuse me!" Touya said, hurrying to nearby shelter and picking it up.  
"Now really isn't the tim-"  
"_Everything ends! Hahahahahahahaaa!"  
_They hung up.  
"Right…" Touya muttered.  
He looked over at the chaos going on nearby.  
"Over my dead body." He thought.

"Right! We can do this, but we need the power of every Pokémon in Unova! Every trainer, every gym leader! The universe will die someday, but today is not that day! Contact everyone you can! Get as many people as you know! Do it now! Hurry!"  
A loud crashing noise could be heard above them, like thunder but much more powerful.  
The sky was tearing apart. In the rip in the sky, nothing could be seen, only black. The ground started to rumble again.  
"We don't have much time…" He thought, flying to Nuvema on a Pokémon too weak to fight.

When he got there, he rushed indoors.  
"Sorry, no time to chat, my Pokémon need to rest, and one question: Do you have any Pokémon? Any at all?"  
"Wh… Err, no dear."  
"Okay, thanks."  
After healing out, he sprinted outside at top speed.  
"Wait!" Her mother called "It's not safe out!"

He bursted into Scientist Lars's lab.  
"Do any of you have Pokémon, from either universe? The world is ending and I need every Pokémon I can get to try and stop it."  
They looked at each other.  
"Oh, I have a few." Some said.

Black Cheren was at the Nacrene museum.  
"Hmmm…" he thought "I miss Touko. I should call her sometime."  
A noise was heard outside, followed by the sound of people panicking, and it was real sheer panic.  
After rushing out, he looked up. The sky… Was ripping apart. A massive black tear was engulfing the sky.  
"Oh no, I just asked for a peaceful day today."  
His Xtransceiver went. Oh, it was Touko. After taking it, he could see her running. Something was up.  
"_I have no time to chat. I need all the Pokémon you have!"  
_"Wh-whaaa?"  
"_Is there a void hanging over your sky?"  
_"Yeeeah, there is."  
"_Yeah, every universe is ending, and unless we have every Pokémon we can get to prevent it, it's bye bye everything."  
_"Err, right, where do I need to be?"  
"_First, withdraw all your pokéballs. I know that's illegal but we'll worry about that later. Then, come to me and we'll travel to the place that it's happening."  
_So much for a peaceful day.  
"_Well, I've gotta go, no time to chat."  
_She hung up.  
He'd better hurry.

Touya and Ethan were at Route K9.  
"Super Rike's portal is this way!"  
They ran up to the portal… Just to find that it was off and only Super Rike could turn it on.  
"Rats!" Touya said, trying his Xtransceiver. That didn't work either. Then again, that made sense. Their multiverse was a different multiverse to Super Rike's one. Fat chance a phone had of working.  
"Well" Ethan said, "Super Rike only had one Pokémon anyway."  
"Let's get Red!" Touya said, as he went to call Red instead.

Black Bianca was helping her father work in a garden with her Pokémon.  
She sighed. She missed Touko and Cheren so much. There was no news regarding the war between Unova and Plasma, and she had been checking the Bulbapedia article on Unova every single day.  
"One day they will meet again." She thought "Surely."  
"_Get indoors!" _She and her father heard.  
Bianca's mother was standing at the doorway.  
"Why?" Her father called back.  
"_It's on the radio! A natural disaster!"  
_They immediately dropped what they were doing and made it indoors. Bianca withdrew her Pokémon.  
Just then, they could hear the air alarms going off. This was truly strange to her as they didn't have something like that in Unova. What made it even more abstract was they were actually being used what they were intended for.  
Just before they made it indoors a sudden brief earthquake tripped them over. They didn't hesitate. They got up, indoors and shut the door behind them.  
In the living room the upbeat music was gone. All there was was a kind of transmission noise, and somebody speaking.  
"_We interrupt our programming, this is a national emergency. The following message is transmitted through the request of the Tella region government. This is not a test. An unidentifiable natural disaster is happening all over the world. The atmosphere is breaking apart, causing black marks to appear everywhere. Brief earthquakes are also occurring and they are happening regardless of location. Due to the uncertainty of this situation, all residents of the Tella region should seek out and prepare to take shelter immediately."  
_A beeping and static noise followed above the noise of the air alarm.  
_"Stand by for a message from the mayor of Crown city."  
_They looked outside. Indeed, the sky was tearing apart.  
Bianca held her hand to her mouth and her eyes watered. "Touko, Cheren, are they okay?"

Touko was running at top speed through the panic in White Celestia.  
"Touko!"  
Another stranger came up to her.  
"Somebody said you needed Pokémon trainers."  
Touko's eyes widened "Yes! We need as many as we can get! Come with me, we need you to use all of your Pokémon to attack that monster over there. The faraway one! Spread the word!"  
"Right." The stranger said.  
"Good luck!" She shouted, running on.

"Alder... We have a report on the Resu Pokémon."  
"What is it?" Alder said.  
"Some people called Touya and Touko are running around Unova getting as many trainers as they can to fight them."  
"Hmm." Alder said "...It's pointless. Morta is invincible. Still, I admire their spirit."  
He stood up.  
"...And what kind of Elite 4 champion would I be if I refused to help?"  
He turned to his messenger.  
"Get the Elite 4. We're going to help them defeat this Pokémon."  
"Right away."

Touko was standing on a hill surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of Pokémon and their trainers. The storm was no better.  
"Allright!" She ordered over the megaphone "This is the moment we've been waiting for! I want every trainer to order their Pokémon to use their strongest attack! We have one Resu Pokémon on our side so it's not impossible! I'm going to count down from 3 to 0, and when I reach 0, I want everyone to give them their best!"  
She received a cheer from the crowd.  
"Are you ready!?"  
She received another cheer.  
She turned around, facing the giant "3! 2! 1!"  
She motioned towards Morta and then hurried off the hill.  
The sound levels were off the scale. This was easily the loudest thing Touko had ever heard. Dozens of legendary Pokémon were helping, which didn't make things quieter. There was no point talking, as anything they would say would just have been engulfed by the white noise. The ground shook violently beneath them. Touko was surprised to see that most of these Pokémon could keep their balance.  
She walked towards her friends who all had their fingers in their ears, and gave them the facial expression equivalent of a thumbs up.  
"Man, if we make it, this will be a day to remember." She thought, as the sky above them danced with water, fire, rock, grass, ice, electricity, blades, beams, telekinesis and other kinds of attacks.  
The sheer power went on for a while. Touko could tell that moves were running out of PP though. The longer they waited, the less intense the war got.

Then, the attacks ceased abruptly.

Hmm… Touko looked around "What's going on...?"  
She climbed the hill again, and saw something she could not believe.  
Every single Pokémon had fainted.

_Every single one._

She fell to her knees. Words failed her.  
Trainers began to lament. As far as she could see, panic and sadness for their Pokémon. Many withdrew them and rushed away.  
Touya, Black Cheren, White Cheren, White Bianca, Ethan and Teen Red went to see how she was.  
"Touko." Ethan told her "I'm sorry. If I hadn't have given you those stones, this may never have happened.  
She looked at Ethan "No, it's my fault. I should have waited for Hilda. I was too caught up in this whole thing, I just wanted to have a safe home. If there's anyone to blame, it's me…"  
"Touko-"  
"_I just wanted to see my Bianca again!" _she said, holding her hands to her face.  
None of them knew what to say. Nobody dared to move.

Touya stood there. He knew what was about to happen to the multiverse.  
He clenched his hands into fists, he closed his eyes and swallowed. It was now or never. If he didn't tell her now, she would never know.  
Inside him, a war broke out.  
"_But what if we're related? What would the others say?"  
_"_Does it matter? We'll never know if we're related or not."  
_"_Even if we aren't related, we're still the same person. It's still immoral."  
_"_I don't care. Nobody is going to know about us two for long anyway."  
_"_I wanna spend the last moments of my life with friends who think I'm sick?"  
_"_No… I wanna spend the last moments of my life doing what's right."_

He opened his eyes. This was so going against better instinct.  
Trying to maintain a normal breathing rate, he breathed in deeply and walked to Touko.  
"Touko…" He said softly, offering her his hand to help her up.  
As she got up he spoke "I know we never knew if we're related or not, but right now I don't care. Everybody is going to die soon, so nobody will remember this."  
"What do you mean?" Touko said, looking straight at him.  
Touya lowered his head. He still couldn't believe he was doing this…  
He pressed his mouth right up to hers.  
All Touko could feel were the tears that fell down her face meet with his tears.  
Everybody stayed silent, the sadness in their eyes.  
Somewhere at the bottom of the hill, the two scientists that helped them meet looked at each other.

"Oh my god." One said "They don't know? They don't even know that they're not related?"  
"We never told them" The other said.  
"It never crossed my mind to tell them."  
"No, needless to say, me neither."

Touya let go.  
"I'm, I'm sorry." he said.  
Touko stood there speechless "Touya..."  
She pulled him back. She knew this moment wasn't going to last long. She wanted to make it count while it still existed.  
They let go again and looked into each others eyes.  
"You were always the one for me, Touko." Touya said.  
He then looked away, completely embarrassed. _Oh good god that sounded so corny.  
_Touko smiled a sad smile. Yep, that was typically him… And it was also typically her, in a way.  
_Was.  
_She then started crying and hugged him.  
"_I just wanted to spend more time with you!" _She said, crying into his shoulder.  
"Yeah. Same for me." Touya responded with his eyes closed, the tears rolling down his face.  
Their friends kept watching, although this was hard to watch. The trainers who had stayed were all silent for the moment that was happening in front of them.  
They stayed there. They could stay there forever.  
Too bad forever wasn't going to happen.  
Then, the storm ended.  
They separated and looked upwards. The rain and thunder was gone, the sky was now completely black. There were no clouds and no sun. Nobody was sure where the light they were getting was coming from.

"_**I am Morta."**_

Everyone turned to the beast in the sky. It was now completely opaque. It had spawned. Life as they knew it was over.

"_**I have awoken."**_

Its voice gave everyone goosebumps. It was the voice of a power Arceus could not control, a power not even Game Freak could control.

"_**Prepare to die."**_

Everyones phone went off simultaneously, again. This time, anyone who answered it had their phone explode.  
Touko took his Xtransceiver out of his pocket, and threw it as far away from him as he could.  
"So it was Morta who was making those calls…" He said "He went back in time and made all those weird things happen."  
He then remembered to check his pokédex.  
"409"  
Morta. Morta was that 409th Pokémon.  
"0"  
Yep, that was gonna be how many Pokémon he would have by the end of today.  
He dropped that as well. There was no point in having it.  
The image of Morta as well as Sira vanished in the sky.  
A horrible silence followed.  
A silence to end all silences.  
Then, everybody's vision grew darker.  
This was it.  
Touya and Touko walked, hand in hand, to the rest of their friends. They all got down, and huddled together.

Silence fell over the whole multiverse. The panic had stopped. Everybody had kneeled down. Planets, civilisations, and indeed every living being that was still alive had stopped doing what they were doing. Some prayed, some wrote letters begging for mercy, and some cried. Some huddled, some meditated, and some told their children everything was going to be okay.

Super Rike's portal on Route K9 activated.  
The cowboy came walking out before the portal closed again, breathing in the air.  
"Ah… The smell of death."

"As it was prophesied" Juniper said "The Resu giant Morta would awaken and commit ketacide."  
"Ketacide?" Someone asked her.  
"Homicide, the killing of another. Suicide, the killing of oneself. Genocide, the killing of an entire group. Populicide, the killing of a species. Ecocide, the killing of every living organism on one planet. Mundicide, the destruction of an entire planet. Omnicide, the destruction of a universe. Ketacide, the destruction of every universe."  
They looked at her. She sure had a vast vocabulary when it came to murder.  
"Okay then." They said.

Life was getting darker. Time was running out. All Super Rike's good friends wanted to do though was spend their last breathing moments with each other.  
Stars started to become too dim to see, black holes started to die. Entropy reigned supreme, and everything started getting blurry.

Then, everything went cold. On a quantum level, the foam that helped shaped the universe calmed down. The tiny wormholes that opened and closed everywhere in the space of 0 seconds started appearing less and less. Slowly but surely, the building blocks of the universe were being disassembled.

Light died. Sound died. Radio waves died. Soon all that was left was the ability to feel, and even that was slowly dissolving. Slowly, the ability to distinguish the grass and their friends from air melted into a cold, timeless but somewhat peaceful empty void. Where they were heading, there was no pain, physical or emotional. Not that physics or emotions were different either.

All differences became indistinguishable. Gradients became solid colors. Concepts became fantasy and consciousness fell unconscious. Death was dying. Life was fading out of existence. Atoms melted, molecules disbanded, night skies were fading, galaxies were losing their iconic shapes, galactic clusters said goodbye to their families, the bubbles between massive galactic spaces grew larger, and the observable universes were becoming less and less beige and more and more black.

Fire burned up. Ice froze away. Celebrities lost their fame. Governments lost their moral. Technology proved to be pointless. Advances became obsolete. Ideas vanished and simulated immortal universes were dying. Any star that was still burning stopped and became cold. The creation of life became impossible. Photons lost their will to keep going and stopped in their tracks, to surrender themselves to the inevitability of the situation. Survival instinct died out, and reproduction proved pointless. Energy faded.

Whatever remained was consumed. Matter dissolved. Contact decayed. Distance perished. Time became a thing of the past. Dark matter became irrelevant. Stories are deleted, and beginnings ended.

As far as humans were concerned, the universe was dead. There was nothing left. An action that could not be undone was done. Where there were universes, there was now a lack of anything. Even going back in time wouldn't bring it back.  
But all the rest of the undetectable matter in the universe remained, until an eternity later, when they found that they might as well not be there, they vanished out of existence.

The last thing Morta deleted before everything was gone was itself.

...

...

...

...

* * *

_21 January 2012_

Super Rike was standing on the top of a high building.  
"Dead, they're all dead."  
Super Rike's last words.

_21 January 2012_

"What the hell just happened?" Skewb thought.  
He got up. He was next to a tall building.  
"What? Who the hell is Prince Skew?"  
Answers did not come to him.  
"Are you telling me that someone just brought me back from the dead? _Me? Of all people?_"  
He lifted his head back.  
"Well I'm sorry to disappoint you Prince Skew, but I'm just gonna kill myself again! Didn't think of that, did you?"  
He climbed back up the building and threw himself off again.  
The rush of air halted as his head hit the ground... Again.  
"_Ow!"  
_He got up, hair flew over the right side of his face.  
"_What? What?! That should have killed me!"  
_The cold, horrible realization sunk in.  
He was immortal.  
The saddest living being in the universe has to live forever.  
"_No. No!"  
_He fell to the floor, screaming in protest.  
"_I want to die! Let me die! I'll do anything! I'll fight in the war! I'll be your slave! Just give me back my mortality!"  
_His words echoed off the other buildings.

Just then, he head footsteps. He looked at whoever was approaching.  
"Of course, it was you who killed them." Skewb said.  
It was the cowboy.  
"If I'd have let Ty get choked to death, maybe the rest would be alive right now."  
Skewb stood up "You made me kill them."  
He gritted his teeth. The anger he felt was technically not anger, it was not an emotion anybody had felt before. The closest a human concept comes to describing his emotions right now was "insanity".  
"_I… Hate yooooou!"  
_He ran towards the cowboy, his arms held out.  
He flicked a finger and sent another blast of air at him, knocking him back several meters.  
He screamed louder than he'd ever screamed before. The universe flashed in front of his eyes.  
"_Skewb….. Skewb… Fooooouuuuuurrrrrtttttyyyyyyyyyyyy….."  
_He sneezed, and all the water in his body escaped through his eyes. The water came raining back down on him. He couldn't move. He was paralyzed.  
The cowboy came into his field of vision.  
They stared at each other.  
At the corner of the cowboy's mouth, he smiled.  
Skewb's amygdala exploded. His pupils dilated. He lost the ability to focus.  
The cowboy started laughing louder and louder. Soon the laughter became maniacal, and then scary.  
"Enjoy life!" He screamed, and disappeared, the air around him distorting for a second.  
Skewb lay there, unable to move, his brain seriously damaged.  
He shouldn't be alive, but he was.  
That was the start of it.  
An eternity of torture.

_22 January 2014_

"You purchased how much stone? What in gods name do you need all that stone for though?"  
"If you have to know..." Skewb said "I'm making 416 gravestones."  
"But... Why? There haven't been any accidents have there?"  
"Oh yes there were. January 2012. I lost 416 friends."  
"Riiiiiiight. On what planet?"  
"It was a universe, all right? A universe of friends."  
"I thought the human brain could only have 150 relationships at one time."  
"I have a list of them! Right here!"  
He shoved a paper in front of his face.  
He took it and examined it.  
"Weedle, Pidgey, Pikachu..."  
He looked at Skewb "These are Pokémon."  
"It was a Pokémon themed universe."  
"You lost a Pokémon game."  
"I did not lose a _game_. Something destroyed their entire universe."  
He handed Skewb the paper "They're just bits of data, dude. _Get over it."  
_"Hey, I don't kill your pets and loved ones and tell you to get over it. Just do your job and give me the damn stone."  
He shook his head at Skewb as he went to get the stone.

_14 March 2014_

Skewb was sitting in the wasteland chiseling stone.  
_"You've been at it for months, Skewb. I'm starting to get really worried."  
_"No you're not."  
_"I do still have a little bit of empathy left in me."  
_"Well, don't worry about me, okay? I've already done 100 of them."  
_"Of 416!"  
_"I plan on picking up the pace."  
_"Skewb, you haven't moved from this spot since you got all this stone, and that was 2 months ago. How much faster can you go?"  
_"Just watch."  
_"Please Skewb, I know they meant a lot to you. Your pain in this universe is only comparable to that of mine, but think about it. You make a gravestone for all of them. Then what? You're only gonna feel worse."  
_"We'll worry about that when the moment comes, okay? Let's live in the now."  
_"You know that makes absolutely no sense right?"  
_"Hey, it's what people taught me."  
_"Look, do I have to get Skew or Jamie over here to convince you?"  
_"No, please don't drag them into my problems."  
_"They're pretty concerned about you too you know."  
_"Concerned over an insane zombie, how humorous."  
_"An insane zombie with emotional problems, yeah."  
_"Listen Espurr, one day you're going to die. One day Jamie will die, and I've already seen Skew die in his future. Me however, I'm immortal. I'm cursed to see everyone I care about die. The less dependant I am on other living beings the better."  
_"Didn't you just say live in the moment?"  
_"I don't really believe that. Besides, there's a difference between watching others die and then dying yourself and living forever with your memories. The more open I am, the more permanent problems I create for myself in the future."  
_"...Okay, you can't be convinced any other way."  
_Espurr stood up, which is something he rarely did.  
_"Stop now, or I won't talk to you until this is done."  
_Skewb stopped and looked at him.  
"Bye." He said, and carried on.  
_"Wait... Seriously?"  
_"Yeah."  
Espurr sighed, and walked back to the portal. On his way, a sad expression came over his face.

_6 April 2014_

"Hey Skewb."  
"Hey Jamie."  
Jamie is a transgendered Gardevoir Skewb met when Espurr convinced Skewb to connect to a Pokémon themed universe for the first time again after his tragic accident. Despite being back in a Pokémon themed world, Skewb simply wasn't interested anymore, and didn't connect with it again except to let Jamie back into her world. She can communicate with Skewb using the same automatic translator he uses to talk to Espurr.  
"I wanted to talk with you about something." She told him.  
"Sure, what is it?"  
"Well, it's about your Espurr. He's been looking even worse than usual, which is saying something."  
"He's not too beat up about our argument is he?"  
"Well, actually, he is. He's worried sick about you, and to be honest, so am I."  
"Don't be, nothing's going to happen to me here. It's a wasteland."  
"We're more concerned about your well being."  
"Jamie, I'm an immortal zombie with a damaged brain. I can sink no lower. There's nothing left to worry about."  
"We disagree."  
"Well, what are you going to do? Drag me home?"  
"I wouldn't do that, but I can't just leave Espurr like this. He's your Pokémon, and you're just ignoring him, as if he doesn't have enough problems. You seem to be forgetting that out of all of us, he probably has it the worst right now, and you're just being ignorant with him. I'm sorry, but what kind of Pokémon trainer are you?"  
"The Pok-"  
"...And while I'm at it, I quite frankly don't like the tone you give him sometimes. He's your best friend, Skewb, and you treat him like an enemy or something!"  
Skewb sighed.  
"You know what? You're right. I get do get snappy with him too often. I've tried to repress that, but that's obviously not working. I should be nicer with him, especially seeing as he's an Espurr."  
"Then you'll talk to him?"  
"I can talk to him whenever he likes. Bring him here now, we'll have a chat about things. It's him that's ignoring me."  
"Yes, because of this thing you don't seem to be stopping!"  
"Not my problem."  
"Grrrr! You're so ignorant sometimes!"  
"Look..." Said Skewb putting down the chisel "Try to look at this from my viewpoint. Ethan and his friends were my family. They were everything I wanted out of life. Saying I should stop this is like denying somebody their right to bury their family with dignity."  
Jamie looked at him.  
"Okay, look." She said "I'm not going to tell you to stop, that's not fair, but at least take a break and come with us, even for just a while. We're all so worried about you."  
"...And let the pain last even longer? No thanks."  
"Just for a short while!"  
"A short while of extra pain is extra pain nonetheless."  
"Please!"  
"Nope."  
She flew her hands up in frustration.  
"You know I can't believe you!" She snapped, and stormed back to the portal.  
"On with work." Skewb said, continuing with chiseling.

_8 April 2014_

"Ow! My head!"  
"Yeah, sorry about that." Skew said.  
"You hit me over the head?" Skewb asked him "Why?"  
"Because you wouldn't listen us, so I took action."  
"Where am I?"  
"Your bed. You should rest."  
"What? Bring me back to the graveyard!"  
"Not gonna happen. I've disabled the portal and passcode locked it."  
Skewb looked at him.  
"You've gotta be kidding me."  
"I'll enable it again when you've had a good break."  
"God, I _hate you!_"  
"It's for your own good."  
Skewb threw the bed covers over him and turned away from him.  
"You get some rest now. You need it." Skew said getting up and leaving the room.  
Despite Skewb's insomnia, he fell asleep pretty quickly after months of chiseling stone.

_2 hours later..._

_"No... Touya... Stop... That stone spawns the third Resu giant... Axia can't stop it..."  
_"Skewb?"  
Skewb woke up in a sweat. He looked over to his side.  
It was Jamie.  
"Oh, sorry." She said "I didn't know you were asleep."  
"What?" Skewb said.  
"Wait..." He added "Was I sleep talking?"  
"Yeah."  
"Oh. That's annoying. I always hated the concept of sleep talking."  
"What were you dreaming about?"  
"My friends. The same as every time I fall asleep. There hasn't been a time in my life since they died that I haven't dreamed of them."  
"Oh my."  
"It's so annoying because I dream that they're back, and then I wake up. I've actually grown to hate sleep because of that."  
"I can't even imagine..."  
"Anyway, what are you doing here?"  
"Oh, I just needed to get something. I came in here to get it but then..."  
"But then...?"  
"But I couldn't help staring at you. You have no idea how worried we all are."  
"Well, don't be. I'm here now."  
"But when you go back, will you just keep going without resting?"  
"Maybe."  
Jamie didn't say anything. This was pointless.  
"I'm just gonna go now." She said, leaving.  
It was then, Skewb noticed that Espurr was sitting in his room looking at him.  
His arms were crossed.

_15 April 2014_

"Skewb?" Skew said to him.  
He didn't respond. Indeed, he hadn't even moved from that spot since he woke up there one week ago.  
"It's been a week."  
Again, no response.  
"Look, if it really means that much to you, I'm just gonna let you back in. You've proved your point."  
No response.  
"I disabled the password on your portal."  
He immediately got up and made his way to the portal. Before entering, he fiddled with the controls.  
_Click. _He set up the portal with his own password.  
"Stay away from my portal." Skewb said, walking through, back to the graveyard, closing the portal again behind him.  
Jamie came in. "Is he at it again?"  
"Yeah" Skew said "and this time he's locked himself there."

_9 June 2014_

Jamie was sitting down.  
This was her life, waiting for her best friend to come out of hiding. None of them had seen him since he locked himself at the graveyard. She could easily go through another portal and continue her life back in her Pokémon world, but she avoided it. She knew Skewb needed them, and she didn't want to miss him coming back if she was away.  
That is, if Skewb was ever coming back.  
Skew came in.  
"I suppose there's no point in trying to convince you to get out and get some fresh air." He said.  
"No." She replied.  
"Skewb is so heartless." He said "Here we are waiting for him and he chooses to ignore us and work on his cemetery for years on end. That man has no empathy. I'm thinking of just leaving this place and going back to the 17th century. At least my life was simple then."  
"Why don't you?"  
"Well, I don't wanna just leave you here to care for Espurr."

Just then, the portal reignited.  
_Skewb was back. Skewb was coming back.  
_He emerged through the portal shaking all over. His hair looked like black hay, and his visible eye was sagging more than it had ever been.  
"I did it." He croaked, and fell face first onto the floor in front of him.

_11 June 2014_

"Where am I?" Skewb asked again.  
"In your bed. Again." Skew replied.  
"I'm so tired…"  
"You've been working non stop for nearly 5 months."  
"Oh yeah, that graveyard, it's finally finished. I can rest easy now."  
"Espurr died."  
Skewb bolted upright "_What?!"  
_"Oh, now you care about him."  
"_When did he die!?" _Skewb demanded.  
"Just so you know, that was a lie, he's right here. But he might as well have died. You wouldn't know because you cut communications with us. We've been waiting here for you for months, you know."  
Skewb laid down again.  
"I've been pretty ignorant, yeah." He said.  
Espurr got up unto his bed and stared at him. He had a look of anger on his face Skewb didn't know an Esuprr could have.  
He used Fake Out on Skewb.  
"Ow!" he said, taking a second to recover.  
"_Lousy immortal!" _He said.  
Skewb sighed "I deserved that, yeah."  
Espurr climbed off his bed again.  
"You really crossed the line Skewb." Skew continued "We're not gonna keep waiting for you if you keep doing this. We have lives of our own."  
"I don't plan on doing something like this. Ever again."  
Jamie came into the room.  
"Came back, have you?" She said angrily.  
"What can I do to make things better?" Skewb asked.  
"Well you can apologize to us for making us wait for months on end for starters." Skew said.  
"I am. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm not gonna do it again. I went too far. What else can I say? I… I…"  
"Come on Skew." Jamie said "Let's go. Skewb doesn't care about us."  
"Wait…" Skewb said "Where are you going?"  
"Going to take a walk outside." Jamie said "We need fresh air."  
Jamie and Skew left.  
Skewb stressfully scratched his forehead.  
"Espurr?"  
"_Don't talk to me." _He said.  
"Right…"

_12 June 2014_

Skewb, Skew, Jamie and Espurr were standing in the wasteland.  
In front of them were 416 gravestones.  
"They really meant the world to you, didn't they?" Jamie asked Skewb.  
"Yeah." He said "They were my universe. My multiverse."  
They stayed staring at the stone in front of them, there was no sound, but the faint howling wind in the background, just as usual.  
Just looking at the vast amount of graves in front of them really put things into perspective.  
"Is there anything you want to say Skewb?" Skew asked.  
Skewb walked forward.  
He looked at the destruction in front of him.  
He fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. The other 3 rushed to his side.  
"Skewb?" Jamie asked.  
He didn't respond. He was crying, but not in a way he'd ever cried before. It sounded like a soft whimper. The tears were rapidly rolling off the side of his face and onto the ground.  
"Come on." Skew said "I think he'd rather be alone right now."

He didn't move for over a week.

_20 June 2014_

_The day my eyes were opened.  
_Jamie had been sitting next to Skewb for about 20 minutes. He was still whimpering. She wasn't going to sit there all day for him. It was pointless. But she could at least be there for him for a while.  
"How much water can there be in someone?" She thought to herself, watching his still streaming tears hit the puddle under his head.  
"Just as I thought" Skew said, surprising Jamie as she didn't even hear him approach "His heart is physically bleeding."  
"Isn't that deadly?" She asked.  
"Not to someone who's immortal."  
"How does that even work? How does your heart bleed?"  
"I don't know much about medics" He said "But I can only guess that the irregularities in his heartbeat due to his overflowing emotions wore it out."  
"Is Skewb gonna recover from this?" Jamie asked.  
"I… I just don't know." He replied "I wish I did."  
Jamie looked at Skewb. No living being should have to suffer like this.  
She shook her head and got up.  
"I can't stay here. It's just too much for me. I can't handle it." She said leaving.  
"Yeah…" Skew said, waiting a few moments, before doing the same.

The clouds slowly moved on from their position, and the sunlight shone on Skewb, not that he noticed.

Elsewhere, people went on with their lives. They woke up, went to work, got the bus, missed the bus, texted their friends, listen to concerts, wrote stories, laughed, cried, argued and lived. Nobody dared to spare another thought for the lowest living thing in the universe. The organism that had hit rock bottom. The zombie cradling his remaining sanity in a wasteland full of dead dreams.

Nobody except one.

50 meters away from Skewb, a second portal opened next the the already existing one. From it, somebody Skewb had never seen before emerged.  
There Skewb was. Oh god. His condition was even worse than he had feared. He could tell Skewb had been there for a while. Best talk to him.  
He walked up to Skewb. Skewb didn't notice.  
"They were your everything, I know."  
Again, he didn't notice.  
He breathed in "Super Rike."  
Skewb stopped. Slowly, Skewb looked at him, failing to notice he was showing him both of his eyes, something he usually never did.  
"W… W…" Skewb tried to say, out of breath.  
"That is your name isn't it?"  
Skewb stared at him. _Who was he?  
_"Nobody has called me that for over two years." Skewb said.  
"Well…" he said, sitting down "That's how I got to know you. Back when you had superpowers I envied you, I wanted to be the one with all the possibilities, so I did what many other tried to do and failed. I researched you, I knew that many things you had, humans could get too, that's how I found a whole new world. A whole new universe."  
"You… You figured out how to make portals?"  
"Every single kind. I kept it closely secret of course. No point in telling the world, what with their already recent groundbreaking technologies. I also think you wouldn't have appreciated that."  
"So you came here to find me?"  
"Not exactly. I wanted to leave you alone, that was until I learned what happened, and to be honest, I couldn't believe it. For the longest time I thought you were dead, until I found someone called Skewb."  
"...But why are you here?"  
He sighed.  
"I had a portal to a Pokémon multiverse. Last week I lost it. I don't know how but it's gone now. It was connected to so many different universes. What's worse is I didn't start recently, the universe was inspired by an old save file on a Pokémon game I lost. The only chance I had left to talk to my friends and Pokémon that I traded and exchanged throughout the past seven years."  
Skewb sat up.  
For the first time in way too long Skewb felt a sense of belonging. He wasn't in hell? Somebody knew how he felt?  
"I've tried to reconnect but by the looks of it the whole multiverse is just gone. Just like that. I lost my friends, and in a way I lost my loved ones. I understand now that I'm not gonna get them back. Trust me, I know exactly how you feel."

Skewb sat there for a while to let this sink in.

All these years. All these years in hell without shared pain. He never thought he'd see the end of it. Yes, his world was gone, but now there were people who understood him… In a way he'd never been understood before.  
He held his hands up to his face as tears welled up in his eyes for the god knows how many-eth time. But for the first time in Skewb's life, these were not tears of sadness, but tears of relief.

_A short while later…_

Skewb and this new guy sat on his bed. Skewb picked up Espurr.  
"This is my espurr. His name is Petrificat, it's Romanian for 'petrified' which explains his condition, but it also has 'pet' and 'cat' in it. I just call him Espurr though."  
"I… I don't see anything."  
"Oh, yeah, of course, silly me, he's still invisible to you. I made him invisible so I could take carry him outdoors without causing trouble. I can make him normal again, but it takes 24 hours for that to take effect. But I can prove he's there, hang on."  
He looked over to his bedside cabinet in search of something to give Espurr. He took his iPod shuffle and held it in front of Espurr.  
The iPod shuffle appeared to float in front of Skewb.  
"Oh wow. That's pretty impressive." He said.  
"Heh. Thanks." Skewb replied "I found him after I lost my friends. He's the only Pokémon I still have. Well, besides a Gardevoir."  
"You have a Gardevoir as well?"  
"Oh yeah. Her name is Jamie. She mostly lives in her Pokémon world, but she likes to hang around here too."  
"Cool. Looks like you're picking your life up again."  
Skewb stopped. He thought about this.  
"N… No, I'm not." He said, shifting uncomfortably "These 2 Pokémon were nothing compared to my friends back in the other multiverse. I don't really do anything with these. I don't engage in battles, I don't even visit Pokémon related worlds anymore. Jamie hangs out with me and I keep Espurr as a pet, but that's about it."  
"Hmm… Yeah. That makes sense. I could always start over, but with years of work, it's just so hard. I probably will in the end though. Just like you, Pokémon meant so much to me, and I couldn't just quit it, not after all we've been through. The community is great, and the games are even better."  
Skewb thought about this.  
Surely, if someone could bite the bullet and start over, he could too… Could he?  
Pokémon did mean a lot to Skewb as well. Pokémon Crystal was the first video game he ever played, he got it when he was still a young kid living in a station orbiting Earth.  
The new guy held out his hand "My name is Jason, by the way."  
Skewb smiled and took it "Hi. I'm Super Rike."  
"So, tell me about your Pokémon world." Jason said.

Skewb did. He told him about the 3 different universes he travelled in, about the 2 Unovas, the parallel timelines, the cloned Pokémon paradoxes, he told him about Touya, Touko and the talking Typhlosion named Ty. He told him about the war and Black Bianca, about plasma, about N who broke himself out of prison and about the Resu legend. He told them that they somehow spawned in the last Resu Pokémon and it killed everything. He also told him a bit about the cowboy and how he helped Super Rike shape the multiverses ultimate death in an attempt to save Ty.  
It was pretty late by the time he was done.  
"Well thanks for telling me. Do you think you'll ever start over?"  
"Well, I couldn't start Pokémon again, even if I tried, which I did many times. I have access to so many universes, including ones with the events of Black 2, X and Y, which I didn't have before the worlds ended, but I never got further than Viridian city in Pokémon Red..."  
"Ah."  
"...Until now."  
"Wait, really?"  
"I figured, if someone else can start from years of lost work and friendship, so could I. At least now I don't have to start alone. We can both start from scratch in our own worlds. Maybe that's what I needed… Someone to start over at the same time, and becoming a trainer would certainly help Espurr."  
"Well there you go. Glad to help. Somehow."  
"Help? Help? You changed my perspective on life. You showed me that suffering wasn't something exclusively made for me. You showed me that people know how it feels like to have the last several years of their lives forcibly taken away from them without their consent. You did more than help me my friend. You changed my life."  
He smiled "That's good to know."

He looked at the coordinates he had written down to new Pokémon themed universes. He could always make a new multiverse by connecting existing universes using quantum rewriting and a few clever tricks. Sure, it wouldn't be anything like the old universe, but he understood now that that is the way of life. You get crap thrown at you, but you fight back.  
Were the 2 years of torture and abuse he suffered before learning this worth it? Hell no, but if he could say "This happened to me. For years on end I got absolutely no support. I'm still standing. Try me." he could do anything.  
"Listen…" Jason said "It's getting kinda late, I should be getting back to my place."  
Skewb snapped out of his train of thought "Oh… Yes, of course. You know the way back to the graveyard, don't you?"  
"Of course, the portal is only in the other room."  
"Heh, yeah, of course." Skewb replied awkwardly.  
"If there's anything you need from me, just ask. Allright?" Jason said.

They were standing at the graveyard, just about to part their own ways.  
"Same for you, and err, thanks again." Skewb said.  
"That's quite all right. Good luck."  
He stepped into his own portal, waving as he dissolved into the portals rays.

Skewb stood there quietly for a few seconds. Then, he suddenly felt sleepy.  
"Eeh, I don't usually get this tired this early."  
Skewb thought. Why was he so tired now, and not earlier when his friends came to pay their respect to the newly built graves?  
"Well, I haven't gotten much sleep in the past 2 years I guess. Maybe my depression induced insomnia isn't quite as strong today."  
He headed back home to have a good night's rest. Something he didn't know he needed up until now.


	6. Epilogue

Skewb was sitting with Jamie, Espurr and Skew.

"So I was thinking to become part of the Pokémon world again."  
"_Does this have to do with that other guy that visited you?"  
_"Err, in a way, yes. He was my inspiration to start over in any case."  
"Sounds good" Jamie said "Looks like you're finally on the mend."  
"Well, I do have a very dark future ahead of me, what with my immortality and all, but things are looking up for now, and now is all that counts for me at the moment."  
"_Oh Skewb, you can't make your mind up with your views sometimes, can you?"  
_"No, no I really can't. Anyway, I was wondering if you guys wanted to join me."  
"Really?" Jamie said.  
"Only if you want to, but yeah. Not only is it a lot of fun, but it will help train us for the upcoming God war."  
"_Yeah, okay. Sounds good."  
_"I don't know…" Jamie said "I'll discuss it with my family back in my world."  
"No pressure." Skewb said "If they don't like the idea or you change your mind, I totally understand."  
"Thanks" Jamie said "I'll get back to you on that."  
"Now listen" Skewb said "You guys won't be able to join me on all of my journeys. Some of you guys are only specific to certain regions and I don't want to introduce new Pokémon and completely upset the balance. I'll be sure to be there with you on the ones you can go to though."  
They nodded.  
"But, what does it mean for me?" Skew said "I'm not a Pokémon."  
"No, but you could become a Pokémon trainer." Skewb said "It does help with your ability to lead teams and strategize. I think it would be good training for all of us."  
"Well, I'll take a look first and see if it's something for me." Skew said.  
"That's fine." Skewb said.  
"_So, when are you starting?"  
_Skewb thought. When should he start?  
"You know, I didn't think about that. I can start whenever."  
"Then let me propose…" Jamie said "Do it as soon as I've decided. No time like the present."  
Skewb smiled "I like the way you think."  
"Thanks…" She said, smiling sheepishly.  
"Well, I've got nothing else to do now, so I don't see why not. It's a deal." Skewb said.  
"Yaaay." They all said awkwardly.  
Skewb smiled. They put up with a lot of his crap for the past few years. It was good to see they still all had a bond.  
"You know, I'm glad I met you guys." He said.

Later, Skewb was standing in front of his portal to the Red Universe.  
He had just wiped a save he made a while back where he had a Squirtle. He was going to continue that, but something got in the way which made progressing impossible.  
Jamie was still deciding, but said Skewb should start anyway seeing as she couldn't do this particular journey with him.  
"Hmm, I don't know." Skewb said "What if I stop again? What if this all becomes nothing? What if I quit after 2 days?"  
"_Think about it this way, if you don't do this now, you probably never will. And quitting isn't such a huge deal is it? It's better than never starting. I think you should dive into it while you still can."  
_"You think?"  
"_Yeah. Go for it. I'll silently root for you in the background."  
_Skewb smiled.  
He closed his eyes. The old dead multiverse came running back into his memories.  
"Wait…" Skewb said "What if I lose this one?"  
"_Yeah, but how likely is that? You know what the Resu legend is now so you can prevent it."  
_"I suppose."  
"_Even if you do end up losing it, you still have us to go back to, you still have Jason."  
_"Jason? I dunno, I already talked to him once. I only told him my story, I don't wanna keep bugging him."  
"_Didn't he say he was glad to help you should you need it?"  
_That was true, he did say that.  
Skewb opened his eyes. It occurred to him that even if he were to lose his world again, he was always have Espurr to go to. He was always have Jamie. He was always have Skew…

...And he would always have Jason.

"Espurr" he said "Wish me luck."  
"_All the best, soldier."  
_Skewb looked at the portal in front of him.

This was the moment.

He walked forward until he was at the other side of the portal.

→ NEW GAME

**The End**


End file.
